If one sins against you,
go and point out the fault
when the two of you are alone.
—Matthew 18.15
Talk with people, not about them.
Don’t underestimate the power of this challenge.
To do this you stand on your own legs.
You renounce having others speak for you.
You take responsibility for your feelings
and don’t sublet them for another to control.
You honor your heart, your experience and its integrity.
You rely on God’s grace rather than your own comfort.
You trust your worth regardless of another’s reaction,
your belovedness regardless of others’ discomfort.
You free yourself from imagining
that you can manage another’s discomfort.
Knowing your dignity is untouched,
you subject it to your love.
You express your love for them
by not shielding them from the truth.
You respect them by not speaking ill of them to others.
You go to where you know you may have to forgive.
You open yourself to hearing how you also have sinned.
You open the door to reconciliation,
which opens no other way.
To be so honest, so forthright, gently but clearly,
you are transparent to the gospel.
You are free, and not afraid.
You are light and not shadow.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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