“A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”- Proverbs 19:11
As Sara Horn continues Chapter 6 of How Can I Possibly Forgive?, she pauses to unpack Proverbs 19:11. She believes there are great truths in this Scripture that we can apply when we desire to let go of our hurts.
1. Insight. Insight develops patience. Patience, in turn, gives us the ability to overlook things normally offensive to us. Sara stresses that merely having insight won’t prevent us from being hurt. We must be firmly grounded in God’s Word so that we’re prepared and ready to deal with the hurts that inevitably come. When we apply God’s truth that is in our hearts, we are able to more quickly let go of those hurts.
2. Patience. The practice of patience enables us to understand that people aren’t perfect. They are flawed human beings, just like we are. As Sara notes, patience helps us stop holding on to thing that aren’t ours to hold on to in the first place:
“This is where patience comes in. When we lower our expectations of people and increase our trust in God, we worry less about what people do and more about what God wants us to do and how he wants us to respond in every situation.”
3. Overlook the offense. Being offended by others is not a new problem. And we’re said hurtful things to others. We need to stop taking things so personally.
Today’s question: Following your vocation loss, what offenses have been most difficult to overlook? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Three practical steps”
