Thoughtful Thursday (Reconciliation & Truth)

For Youth & Young Adults - Every morning before I start my day I watch a video from Grace Daily or Grace Prayer on YouTube, sometimes an Affirmation video and they set the tone for my day because my intention is to make sure my thoughts are positive and uplifiting. Life can pour some salt on your wounds sometimes and if you are not mindful you just might grab that metaphorical salt shaker and pour some more making things even worse or stagnant. So this morning I heard this “reconciliation cannot be built without truth.”  I thought, whoa, that is so true. If you happen to be at war with someone and you are estranged from them thinking about all the things you did wrong or what you said that was harmful. You may be inclined to utter a word of apology for yout part in the mess in the hopes that you reconcile with this person. If this is you it might serve you well to be very thoughtful about your approach. You may wish that your reconciliation will be easy, simple, quick but that’s not realistic. The other party may need something from you to move forward and let things go even as much as forgive you for what happened and that can take time. That would be truth. So your thoughtful Thursday tip today is in the process of righting your wrongs and doing what you can in your own strength and power to reconcile with a loved one make sure you are prepared to tell the truth otherwise things may not go as you hope they will. Truth can hurt, yes, but so can lies or unspoken truth that needs to come out in the open. You look better when you are honest and you feel better that you got that weight off of your chest and your shoulders. So if you desire to reconcile with someone my encouragement is to record an audio of your account of what happened if you don’t want to write it down just to get it out of your head. Then play it back to yourself and note any moments that you lied or held back a truth that needed to be spoken. Record it again and again and again until you have as much truth as you possibly can and if you are brave enough, if you feel ready, send the recording or transcribe it as a letter and let the other party hear it and you just might get your reconciliation. You can do it. You are brave. You have courage. You want to resolve this mess so go ahead and give it a shot. Silence says you are scared or you just don’t care and you don’t want to send that message to anyone you care about. Be thoughtful……….