Handling differences

It’s very important when we have disagreements with people to try and communicate things out to mend things with them.   In Matthew 5 23-25, God tells us the following:
 
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. 25"Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
 
This means stop what you’re doing and try and have a conversation with that person.  God is all about love and He tells us to love as well.   When we try and mend things with people, it benefits us as well as the other person.  It helps us to practice the virtue of forgiveness and it helps the other person see the light in us by settling our differences.  When we try and settle things, it’s also important that we work to make it a productive conversation only with that person.  I say this because sometimes there are situations where you have a third party involved that sometimes make it worse and nothing gets done. 
 
Sometimes, you may have individuals who don’t want to settle with you and that’s okay because we don’t control people but we control what we do and what God has taught and showed us in the scriptures and when Jesus came.
 
When we don’t handle our differences, we create a grudge and it shows a bad example of who we are and when we try and settle things we have to make sure it’s a productive conversation.
 
All of this is very important and we have to take it all in consideration when we’re dealing with others for God’s purpose and to help us to become more holy.  Also, we have to lose the pride because it’s all about giving hope to one another and making sure we stay connected to the vine.
 
Amen