Devotions from  Mark McMinn’s book, Finding Our Way Home

Among the blessings in life, good friendship is among the very best.  Being with a good friends is like enjoying cool, fresh water after a long hot hike, quenching the thirst of our soul.  But in our friendships, our pride often keeps us from seeing the truth that we fail our neighbors and ourselves.   We may speak caustic words, have misunderstandings, become annoyed with them etc.  When we have a hassle in our long-term relationships it is like carrying a pebble along our journey. If another hassle comes up, then we have two pebbles and so on. If our little hassles go unmanaged and the pebbles start accumulating, they become weighty and weigh us down.  But as we resolve our differences, it’s like dropping our pebbles along the path.  God delights in restoring broken relationships and bringing healing. Jesus is the greatest reconciler of all and calls us to mend broken relationships whenever possible. “Courage is not found in denying our faults or minimizing how others disappoint us, but in getting up again and again to build shalom in the midst of complex relationships.”