Proverbs 17:⁹ One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.

Reading through the book of Proverbs can be very repetitive. The same ideas are recycled hundreds of different ways. However, I thought this was a great verse related to forgiveness. It’s true that keeping one’s friends means learning to forgive in response to inevitable “disputes”. Dwelling on them, however, can mean losing a friend.

This verse has me thinking about friends. When I was younger, especially in my school years, I had lots of friends. It was easy because I was required to be around the same people day after day. After graduation from college my work colleagues became a substitute for classmates. This was a smaller group than in school, but the same dynamic applied. I was around the same people more or less day after day.

I have far fewer friends today than I did in my youth, which makes the ones I have extremely valuable. So today I’m asking the Lord to show me places where unforgiveness may have taken root in my heart. Friends are far too precious to lose them.