Logan O'Leary: Random Topic 1

I recently heard a speech about living with family and friends, and how to address conflict and extending forgiveness. The speaker began by reading the letter Paul wrote to Philemon in the new testament. He read verses 17-25 which talk about these topics stated. The speaker noted two main ideas from these verses, wit the first being that we, as people who live with others, must do the hard work of reconciliation ourselves. He noted that no problem can be solved when no one will work toward the solution. To begin working toward reconciliation, he said that there were a few things we needed to do. The first of these was to use our influence on the person to attempt to drive them toward reconciliation as well. The second was that we have to note that we have all been impacted by other people and that our actions can be driven by other people, and that the person who wronged the other may not have meant to hurt the other. He also noted that we must see how reconciliation impacts others. Seeing the growth that can happen in a person when their wrong doings have been forgiven can lead to a spiritual growth in ourselves much greater than expected. He finally noted for this first idea that we must be working toward this goal ourselves. When we are the ones who have wronged we must be cognizant of this and work toward making things right with others. The second main idea he stated was the we have to extend forgiveness to one another. To do this we must be willing to receive the input and correction from others in humility. We must also remember that in God's eyes we are already forgiven, way before anyone or even we can forgive ourselves. The speaker closed with the note that dependence on the grace of God is a cornerstone of the entire idea of reconciliation, and without it its hard to forgive and be forgiven.