Cover Over

1 Peter 4:18
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.


What made this so hard for me to do? When all along I knew this so well?
Was it my pride? Was it my selfishness?

Whatever my reasons had been, they could not justify the mistakes I made.

I knew that God wants me to understand, to forgive, to look over the wrongs of others, to be gracious and gentle. But what I did was the exact opposite. I made my ego priority over the people that I love and value- even to the point of ignoring their feelings and hurting them even more.

It was such a distressing state to be in- knowing that you are hurting someone so dear to you yet you're not willing to let up and let go.

But as always, God is faithful and just.
I was wrong. He rebuked me. Oh and I'm telling you, it's not very comfortable being rebuked by God. It hurts. So much, maybe because what He was trying to tell me was so true.

But as God always is, He was faithful to me. That night when I could not sleep from all the raging thoughts in my head, and from the fumes that never are that almost snaked their way out of my nostrils, God gave me a choice. That choice was to love. That choice was to forgive. That choice was to look over the mistakes.

I made that choice.

And like magic, I felt so relieved, I think I never had so much peace in my heart before. My heart felt so light. There was no longer any burden inside me. The yoke that I was carrying was again easy and light.

And that was the moment I realized that I was exactly at the center of the will of God. I was where God wants me to be. I was doing the right thing- finally, after such a long delay.

And now I have my answer. There's no way I can obey God and keep my pride. There's no way I can sleep sound every night thinking about the wrongs other people did me.

It's so easy to hurt the people that we love, especially those people who care about us, who truly are concerned about us. But when we hurt them, we are at the same time doing the damage to ourselves, hurting ourselves in the process.

So the only logical thing to do is to get out of that corner and live. Forgive. Love.

That's what we all ought to do- we should love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Even Jesus did.