You Must II

Rom. 15:7  “Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory” [with emphasis]

The second thing that you and I must do if love is to last in our relationships is that we must forgive with all of our heart. The challenge with us is we confuse acceptance with forgiveness. Acceptance is not forgiveness. There is a difference between acceptance and forgiveness. Married or just in a relationship with anyone, there are going to be acceptance issues and there are going to be forgiveness issue. But you need to see an acceptance issue as an acceptance issue and a forgiveness issue as a forgiveness issue.

For instance, in a marriage relationship the man repeatedly leaves the toilet seat up. And the wife says to him, I forgive you for not putting the toilet seat down. That is not a forgiveness issue. It is an acceptance issue. Just accept it! I like to squeeze my toothpaste tube from the bottom towards the opening. But my wife just grabs the tube and squeezes it from the middle. We have had the conversation where I have tried to explain the importance of order even with the toothpaste tube. But even that did not change anything. I said to myself that this is an acceptance issue. I said to myself that I do not want to get angry over this so I bought two tubes of toothpaste – one for her and one for myself.

You may be laughing but these kinds of things have a way of getting under your skin in marriage. So there was peace in the house for a while until I found my toothpaste tube squeezed from the middle one day. So I took my toothpaste and hid it. But I got tired of waiting till she is not looking before I access it. There is only one solution, accept it as your portion until you see Jesus. These are just examples of acceptance issues. Should the man remember your birthday? Well yes but let me tell you the secret of why men forget your birthday, women. The reason we forget those days sometimes is because we are thinking of how to take care of you. Rom.15:7 “Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory” [with emphasis]. When we accept each other, God is glorified. So accept each other and give God glory.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to accept the people You have put in my life with all my heart, in Jesus Name. Amen!