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Owning a house is so exciting! The new owner looks at it with stars in their eyes and a heart full of love – – That is until they get it inspected. Once an inspector has examined it from foundation to rafters; the new owner now knows everything that is wrong with it. The house loses some of its shine, and it’s not so attractive anymore. Nothing has changed except the new owner has knowledge of the houses’ shortcomings. This happens in relationships and it’s called the sin of familiarity.
The closer we get to someone the less grace we extend to that person.
We will allow perfect strangers to get away with things because we’ve got no relationship investment in them, or nothing to lose, so we’ll be nice to them. But with the people that we have something to lose, suddenly, we’re short with them or they get on our nerves easily. And these are the very people that we love.
Home is where we go to stop being nice.
In Colossians 3:13 it says, “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.” It’s impossible to be in a relationship and not be offensive. We insult one another instead of balancing the relationship with love.
We allow offense to destroy our relationships.
When we get offended we create a fence (off-fence) between one another. We start out in love, we have all of this romance, our loved one can’t do anything wrong in our eyes. We love everything about them; we love the way they walk and all of their little idiosyncrasies. Then all of a sudden we notice that they crunch and we think, “I didn’t know they chomped like that!” or “It sounds kind of nasally when they breathe.”
The romance is gone.
We get offended, there’s a wall between us and THAT IS THE ENEMY. The enemy comes to steal, to kill and to destroy (John 10:10). He wants to destroy our relationships.
Let’s invest in those closest to us today.
Consider that the bible says we are to forgive other people up to seventy times seven times (Matthew 18:21-22). Why? It also says, “If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matthew 6:14)
Today, let’s extend some grace (undeserved, unearned favor). Let’s give our BEST to those closest to us, instead of giving them what’s left over!
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