Keeping Receipts

After making a purchase, I always request a copy of an invoice for budgeting purposes.  The paper or digital receipt is a useful record as a proof of purchase, details whether I used card or cash, and itemises the GST included in the transaction.  My wife has trained me very well at this stage to obtain a record of money spent so she can input the data into a spreadsheet.

I read an article today about a person who was described as being known to "keep receipts."  The context was not in the sense of purchasing, but it was a reference to her habit of filing away past slights or offences with intent to produce them years later--keeping a record of wrongs.  When we experience hurt or perceived injustice, we can have a very long memory of what we suffered and hold onto it so we can throw it in the offender's face when an opportunity presents itself, when others are vulnerable.  I am reminded of many films and books where one person spoke out of pride or arrogance, and after the tide turns the same words were vengefully repeated verbatim as a taunt.  This is one who keeps receipts as social currency to insult, demean, and avenge themselves upon their enemies.

While keeping receipts for budgeting purposes can be an important facet of good financial stewardship, keeping receipts as a record of wrongs is biblically an unloving thing to do.  11 Corinthians 13:4-5 says in the NIV, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."  The wisdom of the world says it is good to keep receipts to throw in the face of those who have wronged us, and to give up the valuable record of all the offences we have endured seems weak and wasteful.  As Christians, we are called to be casting our cares upon the LORD who cares for us.  We are also called to humble ourselves to admit we have been offended when others have slighted or wounded us with their words--not to file those caustic comments with intent to avenge ourselves in the future by taking shots at them.

Some people are faithful to keep a record of their expenses year after year, and others are as diligent to keep a long, detailed record of the offences they have suffered.  This practice of keeping records of wrongs (suffered by yourself or others) with the aim to get even or triumph over them absolutely poisons people who keep them.  It is the antithesis of love to keep a record of wrongs, to simmer with anger and seek to avenge oneself.  God's wisdom leads us in the way contrary this world as Hebrews 8:12 says:  "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."  In light of God's love and mercy to us, all our receipts and records of wrongs ought to be put through a spiritual shredder by giving them to God who will render judgment.  By God's grace He helps and heals us, and those receipts need not burden us any longer.  Having been forgiven by God, we can forgive others without resentment or feeling slighted.

If we are compelled to "get back" at others, it may be we have lost sight of all God has given and we have freely received.  God gives more grace (without measure), and let us walk in His ways without keeping records of wrongs.