Five Languages of Apology

Scripture:
"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." (Col. 3:13)

For years I have been developing the "skill" to forgive someone. If some one offended me, the first couple of times I usually say something like, "it is ok", or "don't worry about it". But if the same type of thing keeps happening over and over again, it usually becomes harder and harder and in turn the relationship gets estranged.

This is particularly true in a marriage. If your spouse does something that irks you, you love them and don't make an issue of things, but if they keep doing it, it is easy to either bury it down inside and then one day it explodes out or it will tear you up on the inside of you and eventually do irreparable damage.

Now today I don't want to go in a direction of counseling others or giving advice to ourselves. Instead, all I want to do is share a link I found recently that I have begun thinking about.

This link goes to a small 20 page pdf by Drs. Gary Chapman and Jennifer Thomas. Gary Chapman is the author of "The Five Love Languages". I was on his website this weekend and found this small document about the Five Languages of Apology and there were some good thoughts about how we can apply this in the workplace. This pdf is not about how to apologize if you don't want to, it is more about how to apologize in the way the person who is unhappy wants you to apologize. That is, each one of us has a way in which we apologize and expect someone else to apologize. The trick is to know the way the other one expects you to apologize and if you know that, then your apology will be better received.

I am sure at times we apologize and it does not seem to be accepted. This might help. I know I am going to try it.

http://www.moody.edu/mp/promo/garychapman/free_res_land/pdf/StudyGuide_Wkplace.pdf

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, We know that you love us and we desire to love others the same way you love us. We know you forgive us and we desire to love others by being able to forgive as well as having others forgive us. Teach us Holy Spirit and glorify Jesus in our lives. Amen