This Day in History: 0000-10-25

October 25 – Leviticus 19:17 

Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. Confront people directly so you will not be held guilty for their sin. 

I want to live my life as a woman of integrity. How about you? I don’t want to just do what’s right when it’s easy, or when people are watching. I want to live in obedience to God, no matter what. As I study Scripture, there is a principle about integrity that jumps out at me again, and again. It’s consistently there from beginning to end: A person of integrity lives a life of honesty and transparency.  

I don’t love that. I don’t love the idea of showing the world what’s really going on inside of me. I like the idea of veiling myself behind social platitudes in order to appear kind. I didn’t say in order to BE kind. I said in order to appear kind. But the Bible doesn’t always define things like kindness the way we do. 

According to this verse, if I observe a problem in the life of a family member, the kindest thing I can do is to confront it directly. If I keep it to myself, then I am nursing hatred in my heart. And isn’t that SO true? Don’t we all do that? We see family members doing things that we believe to be just a little off, and we stew on it for weeks, or months, or even years! Dear sisters, this should not be!  

We are called to a life of love. We’re to follow the example of our Lord in the way we deal with others. He was lovingly direct when it came to sin: “then neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more.” (John 8:11) Surly we can see that it’s how He deals with us? And as His dearly loved daughters, we should do the same. So let’s stop nursing hatred in our hearts! Especially when it comes to those in our family! Let’s choose instead to confront them directly in love. Let’s choose to live lives of honesty and integrity!