The fruitfulness of Grudges

Have you ever had an argument and then forgotten what you started arguing about? Have you ever gotten caught up in a discussion and then figured out that what you were in difference about was silly? I know I have many times. I have seen churches split right down the middle over carpet colors, sign wording and music choices. It's sad that instead of nipping it in the bud, so to speak, people choose to allow the anger to grow inside of them until they lose sight of the Cross.
I can remember once when Tara and I had only been married for about a year, there was friction and we were at odds for the majority of a week off and on. I am not the kind to go to bed mad or to not talk things out, tara is the kind to go to bed mad and try to sleep it off so this difference in philosophy added to the tension. We go through the week and on Friday afternoon I asked her a simple question, then we realized we had allowed a week to get away over something so simple that it should not have even wasted 10 minutes of our time.
Then Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. But the king said, "He must go to his own house; he must not see my face." So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king (2 Sam 14:23-24).
In this situation Ammon had raped his sister Tamar, Absolom was extremely angry about it, and so was David. These were afterall David's children all making major mistakes. David says to Joab, don't let him see me right now. Send him away to his own house. And, instead of dealing with it right then, with Absolom and Ammon he allowed it to get out of hand. The end result was Absolom eventually killed Ammon because it was not handled correctly.
This is an extreme case of what happens when families and friends don't work through things before they get out of hand. We must make it a point to forgive our loved ones no matter how bad of a thing they have done, we must make it a habit to help others forgive when we see them really struggling with it. In the end we stand to lose a whole lot more by remaining silent than by acting in the moment.
Grudges fester, they grow and they eventually blow up. They either blow up on the person or on someone else but the end result is always the keeper of the grudge being the most damaged by the situation.
So forgive others, forgive them quickly so that you can move on and they can as well.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!