In light of hurt and anger from COVID and the upcoming election, Rick and Lauren start the conversation this week by being honest about all of these feelings and how difficult it can be to have hard relationships right now.

Lauren talks some about either removing yourself or muting people on social media in order to keep certain relationships healthy when you disagree strongly with someone. Rick chimes in and says that this can be helpful because it's easy to have a conversation with someone in your head based on what you see on social media, and have anger towards that person based on this not-real conversation.

Rick references their previous episode about anger in order to preface the statement that forgiveness is a command in Scripture. Rick uses a great example of what forgiveness should look like from his wife Teresa's life; forgiveness doesn't mean you forget or allow unhealthy relationships back into your life. Rick brings up the woman in John caught in adultery to show that when you're forgiven, that doesn't mean there aren't still consequences for your actions.

The conversation then shifts to apologizing and accepting an apology. Lauren brings up that a lot of people respond to an apology with "It's okay" or "You're fine," which is actually not a good response because it can lead people to believe that their actions were fine and acceptable. Lauren also says that responding that way can lead to bitterness if you don't tell people that their actions hurt or upset you. Rick reminds listeners that grace and truth have to come hand in hand, and the command to forgive is not the command to have things go back to exactly the way they were before someone hurt you.

For more information on this podcast, visit podcast.fellowshipknox.org