Consider this: What controls your behavior? Are your actions usually reactions, or do you make wise, informed choices based on who you are internally, regardless of external circumstances? No matter how others choose to live, we must choose to live according to God’s purposes and direction. We should pass along to others, especially our spouses, the compassion that God shows to us. Oswald Chambers wrote, “We are going to meet unmerciful good people and unmerciful bad people, unmerciful institutions, unmerciful organizations, and we shall have to go through the discipline of being merciful to the merciless.”

Did you know there is such a thing as an emotional hug? We embrace our spouses emotionally when we empathize with them and by communicating our care and concern. Aren’t we are all people in process? We need to trust God to heal the emotional wounds of those closest to us in His time. We also must decide to change our attitudes and behaviors that we know are not pleasing to God. In doing so, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus Christ in our character.

Discuss: We often communicate care and concern through good communication. What are some of the enemies of good conversation?

Words are like medicine; they should be measured with care for an overdose may hurt.
JEWISH PROVERB

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