6/22/18: Half Right

I’ll admit it. I like being right. And I’m not by myself. I don’t know anyone who likes being wrong. We like being right so much that we’ll settle for being half right rather than admit the wrong that is our part of the problem, conversation, or situation. I thought about this as I read Proverbs 19:11. It says, “The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression” (NKJ). The New Living Translation renders the verse this way, “Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.” You see, I have no problem with the “slow to anger” part of this verse. In that respect, I’m in the right, but the “overlooking wrongs” part is another story. So I’m half right. I want to see wrongs fixed, and when others insist upon “wronging” me, or holding onto grudges, etc., that just gets my goat. I cannot look at them with the same level of respect I once had until the burr under my skin is relieved. And for me, that relief comes through a conversation in which I feel I am totally heard and respected, one from which I can depart knowing my views were seriously taken into consideration.

Although I struggle with one of the two aforementioned concepts, God talks about being slow to anger and overlooking a transgression in the same breath. Our inner ability to control our anger makes us sensible people, and that sensibility and discretion has an outward manifestation, which is the ability to overlook wrongs. We then gain the reputation of respectability. In other words, we lose respect when we do not demonstrate that we have overlooked a wrong. And we hold onto wrongs because we have not let go of our anger about being wronged in the first place.

So upon further inspection, I’m not really half right when I say I’m slow to anger but I find it hard to overlook wrongs. In truth, I may be slow to anger, but once I’m angry, that’s it, baby. I’m holding that person in the vice of my anger until the conversation can be had on my terms to get things right. So my failure to let it go cancels out any gain I may have received for being slow to get angry in the first place.

Letting go means extending forgiveness and restoring relationships. Wouldn’t we rather be all right with God than half right, or even none right, with our spouse, kids, other family members, friends, and co-workers? We’re fooling ourselves if we believe that we can forgive without restoration. God’s forgiveness of us was for the sole purpose of restoring us into a right relationship with Him. And He tells us we are not forgiven and restored to Him unless we forgive and restore others. Matthew 6:15 is clear, “But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (NKJ).

With whom do we need to make amends? We’re better together. You be the one to make the first call. That will make you 100% right.

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©2018 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

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