No offense

Being offended is inevitable
Living offended is a choice
I heard this in a sermon from Craig Groeschel If you take just a minute to think about this, it’s so true. All of us get offended or offend someone else. All of us! Where we go from there is our choice. If we offend someone, do we just say to ourselves: I’m right. They’re wrong. Suck it up buttercup? Or do we self examine and if we see that we are in error, apologize?
What if we are the offended ones? Do we justify ourselves and pass the offender off as rude and wrong? Do we consider what they have said and try to look at things from their point of view? Do we quickly forgive even when they are not sorry?
Jesus is our best example. When all of us were sinners, living in hostility towards him and maybe some reading this still are, Jesus came here and offered his own life, in great pain, poured out his blood and died. Before any of apologized or were even sorry. He rose again to life so that we could too. None of us deserve this. None of us! Jesus chose to make forgiveness possible by forgiving us first.
If we claim to follow Christ, then shouldn’t we choose not to live offended? Shouldn’t we forgive? Will we be offended? Certainly. But we don’t have to live that way! Let’s follow the example of Jesus and break the chains of living offended!

Father in Heaven, teach us to love like you love and to forgive others just as in Christ you forgave us!