Here’s an article that will benefit all married couples. Below is an excerpt from the end of the article. You can read the entire article by clicking on the link.
Paul Tripp warns couples that unforgiveness can lead to “fantasies of escape.”
If kept alone, unforgiveness always seems to lead [to fantasies of escape]. You are angry, hurt, and overwhelmed. You don’t really like the other person very much, and you don’t look forward to the times when you are together. You feel overwhelmed and smothered. You tell yourself that you are the daily victim of the other’s sin. You can’t imagine that the other person is really going to change. It all seems impossible, so you begin to fantasize about escape.
At first, it’s just the unrealistic daydreams of the tired, but it becomes more than that. The road between fantasy and obsession or fantasy and resolve is often not very long. You are in a place of being very susceptible to walking away, allowing this relationship to be yet another casualty in your relational history.
You may be thinking, “Wow, Paul, that is a very bleak picture!” Well, I would ask you this: do you have a relationship in your life that is moving or has moved down this pathway?
The God of forgiveness and grace enables you by his forgiveness and grace to live in relationships of forgiveness and grace. By his grace you can plant seeds of forgiveness that grow relationships of appreciation, respect and love even though you’re always in relationship with sinners.
HT: Andrew Ford
