...to act justly and to love mercy.

Thank you to those great ladies who are praying for Suzanne and posted beautiful notes on her blog.  I know God is listening and will respond.

Last night at adoration chapel I was meditating on the passage above in my blog header.  And I focused on this phrase, "...act justly and to love mercy."  I repeated it to myself over and over trying to figure out how to best apply it to my current situations.  My SIL's birthday is a few days away and I normally send a card.  For a bit of time after how cruel she was to me at Easter, I contemplated many ways to drop her out of my life.

But I was coming to no pretty conclusions by dropping her from my life since she'd be a part of the family, for better or worse, much worse for a long time.  She is a reality.  I've faced many cruel people throughout my life not least of which were members of my own family who you come in to the world expecting instinctively that they love you and not want to hurt you.  Sadly, this is for some people, maybe a lot of folks, a fact.

While I haven't been to the point of forgiveness at least with the SIL, I feel called to "act justly and love mercy."  I gain nothing by getting back at her and gain a lot in terms of self-respect and hopefully with the Lord by showing her more mercy than she could show me.  So, I've got the birthday card and am about to fill it out.  I'm still contemplating signing it with "Love."  Perhaps, "In Christ" might be a better option?

If anyone has any good, creative salutations to offer, please do!