Instructing with Gentleness, Final Thoughts

1. Is your message true? 
2. Is your method appropriate for the nature of the message?
3. Is your mindset appropriate regarding the source of this message you have to deliver?
4. Is your motivation to share the message born out of love for your brother or sister?
5. Is it the right moment in your relationship with that person to offer this word of teaching or correction?

It is certainly possible to do everything as I have laid it out in the last 5 posts and still go down in a flaming ball of failure and hurt feelings. I would encourage you to not let those hurt feelings persist, whether you are on the giving or receiving end of things. Especially if you are on the receiving end.

As I shared in another post, do not fail to extend grace to your brother or sister when they hurt you. Consider Jesus's parable of the unforgiving slave in Matthew 18:21-35. You have been forgiven a debt you could have never paid on your own. The very least you can do is forgive the hurt someone has caused you, a pain not even worth comparing to the sin of which God has forgiven you.

If someone has caused you pain and you have never told that person that you have forgiven them, forgive, and go tell them. Be reconciled to your brother or sister. Uproot the bitterness that has taken hold in your life and lay it at the foot of the cross of Jesus.

Ephesians 4:25-27 Since you put away lying,
Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor,
because we are members of one another.
26 Be angry and do not sin.
Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and don’t give the Devil an opportunity.