Mokie loses belief in a friend, a sad price to pay, All offend and fall short.

The first Bible school lesson we studied when we went to our new church was a lesson generated from the bible verse Proverbs 18:19-21,
19 A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city,
And contentions are like the bars of a citadel.
20 With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied;
He will be satisfied with the product of his lips.
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.

The study was very enlightening, the preacher went on to say "I will offend you and you will offend me over the course of our relationship" I believe he was being very truthful and upfront. Do you know a relationship in which you have never offend or been offended by the person you share the relationship with? I actually had never thought to offense as being such a sin in our lives until the day I heard his lesson. I have since thought, on it more than once, and have tried to be less offensive to those around me, and with my mouth sometimes that is a hard thing to aspire to. I have tried to study on these verses and be a better person, maybe a life time pursuit.

Mokie was subject to an offense in the last few days. It is, and has been hard on her. Some one she loves and respected a great deal told her something that offended her sense of right and wrong. Mokie is very black and white, and so has a really sense of outrage when someone she cares about is wronged. She was heartbroken by the situation she was told about. She tried to help in her outrage the victim of the situation, but in doing so she offended someone else unintentionally. Now her victim asked her about the situation and she has been made to look a fool by the friend she loved and respected. The friend either due to being cowardly, in a way I would not imagine, or not wanting to make the person she had originally spoken ill of mad at her said "she didn't say anything like that". She now says it was a mistake and now the person who was the victimizer is actually the victim but she spoke of the mix up to no one. Ok, so Mokie is either a seer and can conjure up and relate events she wasn't at or her friend did start the situation. Her friend is an older person that Mokie has always believed and respected, a known christian who is above reproach who would never lie to Mokie. Mokie has now been offended, she is disillusioned at this person. She now looks a fool for having cared about the original victim, who wasn't, she is now a victim but has victimized someone else, the same person that her friend had victimized to begin with. Sadly, Mokie is the victim and her friend is hiding in her cocoon of no one would belief she would do that. I am saddened for Mokie, sad she has to learn this lesson and saddened that her friend has put her in this situation and now casually walks away in all innocence. Sadly this is not the first time I have encountered this same results from her friend so had back off a little from this friend while back.

This reminds me that all are subject to offend, all are subject to sin and all fall short of the glory of God. It is just sometimes hard to remember that the great or very religious people in our lives are as much sinners as any of us. We can never put any one on a pedestal and think they are above all the rest of us. No, we all struggle with sin and wrong doing every day of our lives. I am thinking Mokies friend has gone on and has no idea that her failure to admit, she misspoke and accused, is causing Mokie so much pain and offense. I think if she knew she might be sorry for causing the problem in the first place with Mokie, though she didn't admit she had been wrong in the first place to the person she had accused. Sometimes I think it is interesting when a really strong christian makes an error, or sins, and is no braver than any other person about how to fix the mistake they made, or maybe they don't count the person they offended as important enough or not the same as if they had offended one of their brothers or sisters in Christ. It does make me understand that we are all human, with fears and deceptions, though we don't admit to it enough, God is watching and knows the truth, even the Christian lady no one would believe wrong doing of..... tomorrow.