Rita Lapsiņa

“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”. Ephesians 6: 2-3

our human nature is lazy to serve. Even less do we want to serve in secret. To be honest, we all want honor and recognition. More than once I caught myself wanting to say (and sometimes say): “Did I do it well?” And I want to receive an affirmative answer, praise for my ministry. But the more I understand the Holy Scriptures, the less often I have this desire.

The expression "elephant in the room" means an important, painful or controversial issue that people know about, but do not want to talk about. People pretend not to see it, for various reasons do not want to "pull out" and solve it. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

How to forgive deep and painful offenses?  Does forgiving mean forgetting what has been done?  Does love really cover everything?  Is Jesus asking for help in the process of forgiveness?

As a child, my parents would read  to me verses from the scriptures: "Do not sin in anger: let not the sun go down in your wrath" (Ephesians 4:26). This meant that no one should end the day and go to bed holding anger, resentment or bad thoughts towards each other. You definitely need to find peace with this person. From my mother and father I learned the meaning of reconciliation, i.e., to comfort, to fix things up, to find peace, restore harmony, to reconcile guilt, to harmonise, to mediate, restoration of friendly relations. Did you notice how many of these definitions are synonymous to forgiveness? Because reconciliation requires forgiveness both ways.

Elie Wiesel has said that “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”