FORBEARANCE

DAY 290

A word in scripture has been playing on my mind through the day after hearing it yesterday. It is a word that isn’t mentioned much in the world, perhaps owing to it’s proximity to ‘forgiveness’. But as I reflected on this word, this message was laid on my heart and so I share it with  you. The word is “forbearance”.

Unlike forgiveness that considers an offence and renders pardon, to the degree that any punishment that would have been associated with the offence is no longer credited to the offender, forbearance extends further. We can think of it as a system for accommodating faults.

Forebearance isn’t intended to scrap standards and expectations, nor is it intended to become a system that accommodates and covers errors because with such an understanding, many will take it for granted. Instead, it is a system that is intended to establish an allowance for the humanity of men to find expression, so that they learn from, and grow out of any mistakes they may make.

Forbearance has the motto ‘I acknowledge that you are human, and you are likely to offend me. Thus, I create an allowance for this to happen’. Without forbearance, we are likely to be in a permanent state anger, hurt and disappointment because as always, ‘even the best of us, still have many weaknesses.’

Learn to forbear, it will save you a lot of heartache.

#sly