Genesis 31:55 · World English Bible
Genesis 31:55 Meaning Early in the Morning
Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.
What does Genesis 31:55 mean?
The taker rises in the light of a new morning and, before it goes, it blesses rather than curses. When the mind stops defending its grievance, even the figure of fear can be released with peace and sent back where it belongs.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Genesis 31:55 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
The taker rises in the light of a new morning and, before it goes, it blesses rather than curses. When the mind stops defending its grievance, even the figure of fear can be released with peace and sent back where it belongs. The kiss and the blessing are the sign that nothing is being carried away in resentment, that the parting is clean.
And the ego returns to its own place, which is to say it recedes to its proper nothingness, leaving the mind free and unpursued in the daylight of a quarrel finally laid down.
Laban: the ego released, fear no longer chasing but blessing and letting go. The morning: the dawning of a corrected perception, the light in which the old conflict is seen to be over. His own place: the nothingness to which the ego returns when the mind withdraws belief from it, its rightful and harmless end.
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Christian Psychology lens
Live Genesis 31:55 today
- Pick one grievance you have been rehearsing in your head and say a plain good word about that person instead, even if only to yourself. Then move on with your morning.
- When you next see someone you had friction with, greet them normally. No cool tone, no bringing it up, just a real hello.
- If an email or message arrives that you would usually answer with a sharp line, cut the sharp line and send the rest. Let the exchange end clean instead of even.
What am I still holding on to that would cost me nothing to put down today?
The same truth in other traditions
Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
The best answer to being wronged is not to become like the one who wronged you. Let it end with you rather than pass through you.
Buddhism · Dhammapada
Carrying the thought of how you were hurt keeps the hurt alive. Set the thought down and the fight has nowhere left to stand.
Tao Te Ching
What you stop pulling on stops pulling back. Release your grip and the thing you were straining against goes slack.
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