When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs 16:7

It was not my intention to make him my enemy, but rightly or wrongly, I felt I had to oppose something he was trying to do. With 20/20 hindsight I’m sure I could have handled it differently, but he took offense, and finished up not speaking to me for years.

I have felt the sting of punishing silences before, but to be honest for the longest time I was not unhappy that I did not have to speak to him. Then the Lord convicted me. Was I not supposed to pray for my enemies? Well yes, so I did.

In talking about forgiveness in our prison ministry, my colleague gave me an interesting insight. What he said was that for him, there were three stages of forgiveness. The first is that you forgive, but you don’t want to talk to them. The second you forgive, and you will say hello as you pass in the corridor. The third stage is when you are willing to start to be friendly.

At a social gathering a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to share these three stages with him. After that, we did indeed greet one another in the corridor. It has taken some time, but this morning I encountered him coming out of the elevator, I smiled and opened the door for him. He smiled back, and told me that I was very kind. Chuckling I told him “It didn’t cost me very much!” His friendly response to that left me feeling good.

Father, Your Word is true, when a man’s ways please You, You do indeed make even his enemies to be at peace with him. Thank You Lord. Thank You not only that you have made us at peace with each other, but thank You also for the affirmation contained in it that my ways are pleasing to You. Furthermore I want to thank You that I have the sense that this reconciliation is the first fruits promise of another reconciliation I have been contending for, for an even longer time. I praise and bless Your holy Name Amen