Honest about our own sin

Unless we are willing to be honest about our own sins, we will always distort and overreact to the sins of others.

"One cutting, bitter word given in the summer," someone has said, "can last all winter!" In fact, it can last for many winters to come.

"WHAT YOU DON'T FORGIVE, you pass on"

A young pastor began a ministry on Saturday mornings to the inmates of the local county jail. Each week he'd go into the jail cells and conduct Bible studies and prayer sessions among the inmates—mostly young white men who were doing time for anything from burglary to habitual drug use. As he'd enter the jail the despair and anger among these nineteen- to twenty-four-year-olds was palpable. When the young pastor asked the warden how so many young men with great promise could end up in such a place, the warden sighed and said, "This place is filled with boys who got tired of waiting for their dads to keep their promises—promises to provide, promises to show up and spend time with them, promises to come home at night— they finally got so angry with the injustice of it, they went out and did stupid things."

Erwin W. Lutzer, When You’ve Been Wronged: Moving from Bitterness to Forgiveness (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2007).