Read Matthew 16-18
Matthew 18:15 says, "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." It’s not easy to let someone know they’ve hurt us. We don’t want to seem petty or overly sensitive. We don’t want them to retaliate with a list of offenses they’ve suffered from us.
So we sit and stew and the hurt gets blown all out of proportion. Or we tell somebody else about it, trying to get perspective or to unburden ourselves that might only add to the numbers of those participating in our drama.
We might benefit from talking it out with a trusted loved one, but we eventually have to confront the person who annoyed us. God wants us to learn how to do this with kindness and gentleness—one of the benefits of practicing it. We can look each other in the face, knowing we’ve cleared the air and strengthened the relationship between us as best we can.
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