Words of Encouragement... Leviticus 19:18

You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people but you shall love your neighbor as your self.  I am the Lord.
                                                                                                  Leviticus 19:18

This verse as harshly as it sounds like it is written, is a boundary for our safety and our good.  So many people think that the bible is just a book of things that we can't do.  A way to ruin our fun. Especially in the Old Testament  people see the lives of Christians as stuffy and boring, but that is not true at all.  Jesus rephrased this "rule" in Matthew 22:34 - 40 when he told the people to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.  He said that this was the greatest of the commandments.  The thing that caught me on this verse was the part about not taking vengeance or bearing any grudge against the children of your people.  I think far too often we hold on to things when we have been hurt by people and situations   In essence we are saying that God is not big enough to handle this problem for us and it makes us feel good to stay mad about it.  Sometimes we even pull other people into our anger and frustration.  I have done this more times than i care to admit, and relationships with an innocent bystander of an argument or disagreement were hurt just because they were somehow related to the other person.  The real truth in this verse and in Jesus's teaching of the same concept in Matthew is that if we can get this one, the rest of the "rules" will come with ease.  This one is about our heart and our selfishness.  We think of ourselves higher than we really are which causes us not to love others, but if we love others and we love God, we have lowered ourselves to the correct place in our priorities and our attitude will be more like that of Christ.

Is there someone in your life that you need to make amends with.  It may not always be able to be fixed but you need to do everything on your end to try to fix it and then all you can do is pray.  The Lord is in control and is able to heal broken relationships. Sometimes its just not on our time table.