David was not entirely innocent. That is why when Shimei heaped curses on him, threw those stones, and showered him with that dirt, David refused to allow Abishai to cut off Shimei’s head. My son, who is of my own flesh, is trying to take my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to (2 Samuel 16:11). What an honest acknowledgement and confession! That is the first step towards reconciliation and restoration, isn’t it? When relationships break down, when family members hate us and friends recoil from us, when the communion of saints is hurting, we ought to see these as the Lord’s way of humbling us. It is the Lord’s way of getting us to see our own moral failures, our own struggles to deal with situations well.