Love Promotes Intimacy

S scripture: "He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends." Proverbs 17:9

O observation: Love promotes intimacy. We are born into life with a hunger to be known, to be loved, and to be accepted. We want people to recognize who we are and to value us for it. Someone who knows us in this way has the power to love us at great depths or to wound us in unrecoverable ways. Love covers an offense and provides safety to the one's we love. Love is the shelter for our loved ones' secrets. If we promote shame instead then we create uneasiness and separate close relationships. Love covers over an offense.

A application: I haven't always protected the secrets of loved ones. I have allowed a desire for discussion to lead me to spill information that was a secret. The information led to feelings of shame and distrust. That isn't love. Love covers an offense and keeps secrets, except those that would lead to harm. I choose today to be mindful of the information I share with others.

P prayer: God, please forgive me for the secrets I have shared. Help me to foster restraint and self-control in the information I share. Remind me that love covers an offense and is a place of safety not shame. Help those I have hurt to forgive me and to learn to trust me again. Help me to be worry of their trust again. In Your loving name, Amen

Proverbs 19

Proverbs 19: Proverbs of Solomon (Cont.). 

Better the poor whose walk is blameless than a fool whose lips are perverse. A person's own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord. A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will perish. A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to overlook an offense. Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward them for what they have done. Stop listening to instruction and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

God wants our walk to be blameless, so much so that He would rather us be poor than fools. The actions we take, whether wise or foolish, have consequences. Our foolish actions lead to our heartache and God allows us to suffer the consequences that we might gain knowledge. Our lives and our words should be honest for falsehood will be found out and punished. God wants us to be patient and to overlook the offences of others: we all make mistakes. Be kind to the poor and do not stray from wisdom.