Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8

 

Life has it’s gray, gloomy rainy days and so do people and relationships.

 

Saving for a rainy day is common wisdom in cultures around the world. We don’t know what the future holds, but we realize that there will be unexpected, difficult times that we want to prepare for. Relationships—marriages and friendships—also go through spells of “rainy days.” What we’ve “saved up” relationally can make all the difference in rainy days, weeks or seasons.

 

First, we’re going to need this advice from Scripture: “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (Colossians 3:13, 1 Peter 4:8).

 

Occasionally, the faults causing the relationship issues will be ours. It’s going to be a lot easier for a spouse or friend to forgive or just to keep on loving, in stressful times, when we’ve made a habit of doing this: accumulating relational goodwill through regular positive gestures and interactions.

 

“Nobody has the emotional stamina to turn towards other people’s needs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,”[1] says an expert. Ways to build up positive interactions for a rainy day include:

 

–Mentioning what you appreciate about them

 

–Leaving a love note for no reason at all

 

–Kissing your spouse like you mean it

 

Building up a reserve of positive interactions is a practical way of getting through to better times, and of loving one another earnestly.

 

[1] Email, Gottman, John, Marriage Minute from the Gottman Institute, 25 April 2023.