Thanksgiving, Trip Stress and Forgiveness

Thanksgiving, Trip Stress and Forgiveness

                This time of the year Christians and people of other faiths concentrate on enjoying the “Holidays” “Holy Days.”  In spite of this there is more stress than at any other season.  I call it "trip stress" or "coming and going stress".  We are having several people to travel from other states and other cities to our home tomorrow, Thanksgiving day. Our stress is up just a little especially since its our first year in our home here in North Richland Hills.

Have you ever had a bad attitude toward someone and you didn’t know why?  Could it be holiday trip stress?

                If you have had great exposure to a gracious home, you know there is a flow of forgiveness which abounds.  The reality is that God’s standards for His children are high, but His grace and love are even higher.

                I see these qualities in gracious families. Mutual submission.  Purity.  Respect. Gentleness. Quietness.  Understandingness.  Honor. 

                These qualities align effective prayer.

  I could add harmony.  Sympathy.  Brotherlyness.  Kindheartedness.  Humility.  Not returning “tit for tat”.  This phrase could be specifically a turn around point.  John and Julie Gottman are famous family researchers in Seattle.  To study what makes families work they have taken couples into a home for a weekend and, with their permission, have video taped them for a weekend.  What was the big difference in the great marriages and the bad ones?  The good ones had the ability to quickly admit something was bad and turning it into a good.  When people in the family give an insult, we have two choices. To give a greater insult or to give a blessing for each insult.  That’s what gracious families do regularly and constantly.

                Our calling as followers of Jesus is to receive blessings of grace from God and pass them on to others.  This requires self-control with the tongue.  This gives us a inner spirit that seeks moreover pursues peace.  Again this aligns with God’s character and so when we pray from this environment, our prayers can often be answered with “Yes.” From God’s heart.

                Outstanding people are often clustered in certain families.  The reason is that these families are high energy, zealous for good things. They are willing to pay the price for success in the long term.  They are not marching to the drumbeat of the world’s way.  They are willing to suffer intimidation, but are not troubled by this.  They have been taught by Jesus and the gracious family to know what they believe and why they believe it, but at the same time they are humble in their manner.

                A key element for my life to work is to have a clear conscience.  Sometimes I mess it up by doing something that I know is unhealthy for a relationship. It could be a lack of gracious speech regarding forgiveness or something else.  God brought me into His family and saved me from the perverse, wicked world.  He allowed me to experience baptism and what an alignment of my conscience with Him this experience was.  Now I must be diligent to keep a good conscience.

                The only way I can keep a good conscience is through receiving forgiveness from God every day. His standards are higher than they very best people I have met. 

God’s standards for His children are high, but His grace and love are even higher.

                The reality is that God loves sinners.  When He sent Jesus to earth it was His will for Him to spend much time eating and drinking with sinners.  That’s why He was called a glutton and drunkard.  Jesus spent time with sinners to reach them for His Father in heaven.  This is God’s greatest joy.  Sinners leaving a life of squandering wealth with destructive activities and coming home to work productively and enjoy the banquet of life with the family.

                God’s as happy when a sinner comes home as you might be if you lost your wallet and found it.  Very happy.

                I am the prodigal son who has come home to God and my family from wasting my life in many foolish choices.  Now I want to live in forgiveness and make sure people feel my grace toward them.  I have wasted all the time I want to in silly behaviors which don’t build up my life.  Disciples of Jesus have written that the world has lost its draw on them.  Peter wrote that he had spent enough time in:

Sensuality.  Lusts. Drunkeness. Carousing. Drinking parties. Abominable idolatry. Excess.  Disappation. 

Outsiders who observe our joyful freedom might accuse us of these unhealthy behaviors, but our life should show these attacks to be slanderous and untrue.

I am going to enjoy this Thanksgiving Day by celebrating all the blessings of my life.  A gracious family would perhaps be at the top of my list today.  I hope this is or can be an experience for you as well.

Happy Thanksgiving 2013.

Luke 15, Matthew 18, 1 Peter 3,4

Larry Wishard