But if she believes that her dad is truly born again and walking with Jesus then why would there be an issue? I mean can not the Lord keep her dad from sinning again?
While there are some good points in many of the posts I think they have gone pretty far afield from my original intent.The original idea is about overlooking an offense. NOT necessarily forgiveness of sins against us, or others. In fact if it is an "offense" they may not have even done anything wrong per se , we are simply offended by anothers actions, words, deeds, etc. although they may not be sinful. Certainly heinous sin such as the sexual abuses alluded to in some of the posts are a totally different thing than taking offense to something.For example.. let's say that someone tells you--"We really don't like being around you. You have a sharp tongue and we are sick and tired of you whining and complaining. So.. please do not show up at the dinner party Friday evening as you will ruin it for everyone by your rotten attitude. You are such a loser!".That might well offend some of us! The question is how will we respond to that? How will we respond if what they say is true? More importantly, how will we respond if what they accuse us of is absolutely false and it was said only to hurt us?I have at times offended people while doing my dead level best to obey the scripture and walk in love. I observed a couple making some mistakes that would eventually hurt their ministry very badly. It was not in any way sin. It was lack of common manners, inappropriate language (though not sinful) at the dinner table, and lack of personal hygiene. We are talking things like eating with mouths open and food falling out, talking with mouths of food as chucks of it fell on the table, licking off the serving spoon from a platter, "bathroom and bodily function" conversation at a coed dinner table, loudly passing gas for attention at that table, etc., not using deodorant, going days without a bath. None of these are "sin"... but the inappropriateness of it will cause people to avoid you and distance themselves from you. They were not children but in their mid 20's and college graduates. In discussing with my wife what to do about it, if anything, we came to one very certain conclusion. You must ALWAYS do unto others AS you would have them do unto you. The couple had tremendous spiritual gifts and abilities that would take them far. However, it was clear that their gifts would take them places that their lack of manners and decency would keep them from being asked back to.We felt given their spiritual abilities we must talk with them to help them in this practical area. In addition, if we were in their shoes we would have wanted someone to speak with us regardless of how difficult it was to hear at the moment. That is what love would do... help the other person achieve their highest ability.We approached it very low key and shared how that their gifts were precious and from God. Some common manners would go far in enabling them to be used as people would be more open to receiving from them. They took great offense and lashed out at us. It was almost a pride in being slobs and "not bowing to the man" type attitude. We dropped it and just loved on them and helped where we could. Ultimately though that offense grew and festered in their hearts to the point they left our lives completely. They did so in such a way that it will be difficult for them to return without having deep humility. Paul had a similar circumstance in scripture with John Mark. Over time he reestablished his credibility with Paul. After refusing to let John Mark go with him on his journeys Paul years later said to send him as he was "profitable to me and the ministry". I think that is a great example of overlooking an offense but not pretending it did not happen. Paul made him prove the change of life matched the words. It did so he was later restored to that place of trust with Paul.Again, we are talking offenses... not heinous sins against the innocent.How about you? How do you handle it if someone offends you?
Again, we are talking offenses... not heinous sins against the innocent.How about you? How do you handle it if someone offends you?----again I am sorry for taking part in hi-jacking your thread. I felt it would be only fair and right for me to come back in and comment on the original topic. So for what it is worth, I have in the past allowed self to be easily offended and I have held on to those hurts but now I am trying to be in such a place in my walk with the Lord that I only take offense at the sin in my own life. I pray a lot more and try not to take personally when things are said or directed toward me. My biggest struggle is allowing self to play into the poor me attitude, seeing myself as the victim. I have learned that there are times when people have said things to me and even though I don't like hearing it they have been spot on.rdg
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. ~1 John 5:16
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ~Philippians 2:3