Igniting the Flame of One Relationship Conference

Real Men Real Talk The Devil Made Me Do It Series 2 (Topic: Offense)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/marriage4life1/2014/05/28/man-talkreal-menreal-talk-series2-the-devilmade-me-do-it-offense
OFFENSE (Angering, Hurting, Insensitivity)

How can we avoid offending others?
BIBLE READING: Mark 6:1-6

KEY BIBLE VERSE: The next Sabbath he went to the synagogue to teach, and the people were astonished at his wisdom and his miracles because he was just a local man like themselves. “He’s no better than we are,” they said. “He’s just a carpenter, Mary’s boy, and a brother of James and Joseph, Judas and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” And they were offended! (
Mark 6:2-3

Just One Step!!

www.ignitingtheflameofone.com

 

Marriage is extremely difficult. Few people in our time prepare themselves adequately for the challenges of marriage – and the result is frequently disastrous. A successful marriage requires not only spiritual preparation (as many in the Church mistakenly believe) but also practical life skills. These skills include the ability to perform domestic duties, to deal with financial responsibilities, to form lasting and healthy relationships, to communicate effectively,to be good parents and have a good prayer life.

Breaking the Cycle of Retaliation

Retaliation-to do something bad to someone who has hurt you or treated you badly: to get revenge against someone

Revenge-retaliate,Get Even-retaliate,Vengeance-retailate

Anger-retailate .

Solomon replied, “If he behaves himself, he will not be harmed; but if he does not, he shall die.” 1 Kings 1:52

Forgiveness is stronger than revenge.

While Adonijah feared for his life and expected the severest punishment, Solomon simply dismissed his brother and sent him home. As a new king, Solomon had the power to kill his rivals, something Adonijah would have done had his conspiracy succeeded. But Solomon acted as if he had nothing to prove, thus demonstrating his authority and power. Sometimes forgiving a personal attack shows more strength than lashing out in revenge.

Trying to prove one’s power and authority often proves only one’s fear.Remember when you have been

Rejected,Denied, Disapproved of & lonely; God is there with you!!

Remember that God’s silence does not mean rejection.

Job was especially upset because God was silent, giving no reasons for his suffering. Job misinterpreted God’s silence as rejection, and once again he said that it was not his suffering that bothered him as much as this apparent rejection. If God had given reasons, however, Job’s faith would probably not have been stretched and strengthened.

· How many times has God done the same for us, holding us back from sin in ways we can’t even detect?

· We have no way of knowing—we just know from this story that he can.

· God works just as often in ways we can’t see as in ways we can.

We are to do good to those who wrong us! Our desire should not be to keep score, but to love and forgive. This is not natural—it is supernatural.

Only God can give us the strength to love as he does. Instead of planning revenge, vengeance, getting even, hating the other with much anger, we are to pray for those who hurt us or you.

Romans 12:9-21

OOPS! I Did IT Again!!!

I must admit that I had a rough weekend….I’m not proud to say that I behaved in a terrible way on Friday night. I reverted back to some of my old behaviors and as a result, I really hurt my husband. I can honestly say that I saw myself doing what I didn’t want to do but I did it anyway. I knew the outcome was going to be hurtful and that we would need to recover from it but I chose to behave poorly anyway. As a result, it took a little time for us to recover and I spent my Saturday feeling sad that I had not made a better choice. I found it really hard to forgive myself even after my spouse had forgiven me. That’s the hardest part for me; forgiving myself. You would think that I would be better at forgiving myself since I’m a believer and work with others to learn the art of forgiveness. Nope…..not an easy thing for me to do because I have a personality that doesn’t want to make mistakes in the first place so when I do, it’s easy to beat myself up and not want to forgive my mistakes.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever behaved in a way that you didn’t want to and knew you needed to change what you were doing but you did the wrong thing anyway? Do you find it hard to forgive yourself even after your partner has forgiven you?
I think we all find ourselves doing that in relationships. We start with the right intentions in mind but old habits die hard and we find ourselves doing something we know won’t help the relationship. After we have hurt the other person, we allow guilt and shame to keep us from forgiving ourselves and this makes the recovery from the situation more difficult.
I find that the recovery from making the wrong choice can be tough. It puts a “scrape” in our relationship and it takes time to heal the wound. The good news is that relationships are resilient and though at first, it may seem as if the brokenness can never be repaired, people have a marvelous ability to forgive. The tough part is holding on through the rebuilding phase while consistency replaces doubt, time reduces discomfort and forgiveness replaces hurt.
Where is your relationship today? Do you need to ask your spouse for forgiveness? Do you need to forgive yourself for something you have done? Today is a good day to start the “rebuilding” phase in your relationship. Today is a day to start fresh and try again.