March 8
Clear up misunderstandings now
“Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:18).
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matt. 6:14).
“Say not thou, I will recompense evil: but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee” (Prov. 20:22).
Oh, my dear friends, you who are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, meaning to clear them up some day; you who are keeping wretched quarrels alive because you cannot quite make up your mind that now is the day to sacrifice your pride and kill them; you who are passing men sullenly upon the street, not speaking to them out of some silly spite, and yet knowing that it would fill you with shame and remorse if you heard that one of those men were dead tomorrow morning; you who are letting your neighbor starve, till you hear that he is dying of starvation, or letting your friend’s heart ache for a word of appreciation or sympathy, which you mean to give him some day, if you only could know and see and feel, all of a sudden, that “time is short,” how it would break the spell! How you would go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do.
—Phillips Brooks.