Resolving Conflict Requires Forgiveness

No matter how hard two people try to love and please each other, they will fail. With failure comes hurt. And the only ultimate relief for hurt is the soothing salve of forgiveness.

The key to maintaining an open, intimate, and happy marriage is to ask for and grant forgiveness quickly. And the ability to do that is tied to each individual’s relationship with God.

About the process of forgiveness, Jesus said, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14, 15). The instruction is clear: God insists that we are to be forgivers — and marriage, probably more than any other relationship, presents frequent opportunities for practice.

Forgiving means giving up resentment and the desire to punish. By an act of your will, you let the other person off the hook. And as a Christian, you don’t do so under duress, scratching and screaming in protest. Rather, you do it with a gentle spirit and love, as Paul urged, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32).

Taken from FamilyLife Marriage Bible