Chapter 8 The Storm Continues

On the second page Ricky outlines three things he learned from his grandfather:
1. "Christ took upon his own head the sins of those who have wronged us."
2. "Because of this, he stands between us and those whom we think have wronged us, asking us to realize that the atonement is sufficient for those sins and to therefore repent of our grudges and give up our enmity." (I think I need a better understanding of enmity.)
3. "If we forgive, the atonement fills us with what we have lacked and either washes away our pain, or sustains us in it."
Ricky's thinking and analyzing leads him to think that maybe we sometimes don't want to feel the relief of the pains of sin. Maybe we don't want the pain and suffering to go away. He thinks that if we don't think both parties of a problem don't think it will happy, then you don't really want it to happen but you want something else. And if we don't want the pain, why do we keep allowing it?
In the story, Rick and his wife are having problems, but it could be family problems of any kind, or any relationship problem. If we feel the other person doesn't understand us, or they aren't listening to us, why do we just turn a deaf ear to them? Why don't we try to understand? What do we want instead of understanding? Rick insists he doesn't deserve the way she it treating him. A voice asks him, "So you only want what you deserve, do you?" "Are you sure you'd be willing to live with that?"
Maybe that is another great question. Sometimes we think we deserve more, but do we really? Are we as innocent as we think we are? We all need to look inside ourselves and see what others see. Each of us. I need to see what you feel, and at the same time, you need to feel what I feel. We need to decide for ourselves what we deserve. And it might not be very much.