Proverbs 10:12 -- On Love and Strife

"Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins."
Proverbs 10:12


This is interesting because covering sin seems deceitful in a way, like we are trying to hide what we did. Interestingly though, in Psalms we read "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (32:1) as well as "Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble;" (32:7). It seems that, at least in certain circumstances, hiding and covering is okay, if it is part of our repentance process. Perhaps what is meant here is that as long as we acknowledge our sin and work to correct our lives and change our hearts, so we aren't the same people that wanted to commit those sins in the first place, it's okay to bury those things. We don't need to wear a scarlet letter symbolizing our sin. We can instead work to live a better life... and this tells us how to live that better life and to cover our sins in the only approved way, which is through love. Love of God, love of anyone that we have wronged... as we change, and accept other people's changes and move on from strife rather than digging it up daily and worrying over it.

Let's remember the consequences of sin in destroying relationships and potential and disconnecting us from things that matter. We can't go back in time and undo those decisions or open up past choices that are closed, and God isn't asking us to walk back into abusinve relationships, but despite the boundaries that we need to respect from past sin, love can heal our hearts and reestablish appropriate connections if we are open to it, and even if some opportunities or possibilities remain lost, God can bless us all with new opportunities and get us back on track to becoming our best selves. Past sin can become just a delay rather than a roadblock to our progress. Today, let's love... covering past strife rather than stirring it up, and as we cover our own sins through the generous use of love, let's allow other people that same freedom, focusing on who they are, rather than who they were, and loving the whole world enough to focus on love rather than strife.