“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God” (Matthew 5:23-24).

Have you ever found yourself harboring resentment towards someone or noticed someone holding resentment towards you, but you could not remember what the cause was? Maybe there was a relational wound, even a seemingly small one, that never healed and has created an almost incurable toxicity. Or a minor miscommunication that mutated over time into a full-blown conflict that seems unresolvable. It could be in relationships between parents and children, long-time friends, colleagues or with a spouse. We are all flawed, imperfect human beings prone to getting off track sometimes, or even often, but the trick is not to wait until things spiral out of control before we attempt to get things back on track.

We recently taught a large group of fifth- and sixth-graders about emotions and how to describe their feelings. We were helping them with an activity where they had to color leaves that represented different feelings, cut them out, and glue them onto their paper trees. Inevitably, arguments erupted over glue sticks and crayons. Blows and harsh words were exchanged, even between siblings. Luckily, we had enough support to take the students who were fighting aside, talk things out, listen to what they were feeling, and try to hear the need behind the hurt, helping them learn how to repair their relationships with their friends and siblings and get things back on track.

What gives me hope is that relational repair or reconciliation is a responsibility that God assigns to each of us. The apostle Paul said that “God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). We could save ourselves and those we care about a lot of heartache if we could learn to repair quickly and not hold things against each other, giving ourselves the freedom to get back on track and keep moving forward.

If you share our desire to help the children and families here in northeast Thailand learn how to reconcile in their relationships as God wants them to, we invite you to pledge your support. With your assistance, we can help the Isan Thai people learn how to live out their faith in Jesus and get things back on track.

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