No Record

I Corinthians 13:5b it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Wow, this definition of love is a tough pill to swallow, isn’t it?  I know I can get easily angered about even the smallest of things.  A person talking in a movie, a driver who cuts me off in traffic, or a small child crying and screaming in a store – all of these things can pile up in the course of a day and when we get home our husband just looks at us sideways – and we want to knock him over!

It’s usually when we do keep a record of wrongs that we then become easily angered.  When we are storing up grudges against many people for even slight things they have done to annoy us, it doesn’t take but one little knock from someone to send us over the edge.

How do we keep from getting easily angered?  For me, it takes visualizing the cross behind the person who angers me.  We are all on level ground at the foot of the cross, in need of a savior, loved by Him.  When I visualize the cross behind the person who wronged me, I can see that I’m no better than they, and we both are loved by Him.

Do I see that picture every day, every hour?  No way.  But when I stop and do, I stop and think before I speak or react.  And when I mess up and react in anger because of a multitude of stored up wrongs, I feel bad.  And the Savior who hung on the cross forgives me…again and again…because he is love.