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Reinforce The Good Relationship
So, the two of you disagree — strongly.
Dad says, “You’re being too hard on our daughter!”
Mom says, “You let her get away with everything!”
One business partner says, “We need to spend more on advertising!”
The other partner says, “That would be great, if we had more to spend!”
One Christian says, “You’re too liberal!”
The other Christian says, “You’re too conservative!”
Friendship — love — trust — respect. At one time, our relationship was marked by these characteristics. But when we disagree about something that matters deeply, the foundational characteristics of the relationship can be lost, and sometimes those characteristics aren’t ever recovered.
Last week I listed three steps for handling disagreements:
Stop the argument.
Reinforce the good relationship.
Then, tackle the issue.
This lesson is about step 2. We’re going to see how Jesus teaches us to reinforce the good relationship.
I’m being very specific about the good relationship, because there are different methods of…