I have an issue with this: Forgiveness. I have quite a few people in my life who seem to make it their mission in their life to make mine (or others close to me) miserable. I mentioned one such person in my post Wednesday. I've also mentioned a certain BM who likes to make everyone she comes in contact with miserable. And then there is a former sister-in-law....and I'm sure there are others, but those are the most pre-dominant.
The thing is, these people aren't just minor annoyances in my life who have done a thing or two to bug me. They have done, and continue to do things that can alter lives. And that to me is hard to forgive.
I thought a lot about my post the other day, and about the comments I received from people; the need to forgive and pray for those that wrong me. And I know I need to do this. It is just something that is very, very hard for me to do.
My plan this morning was to do a post about forgiveness. I was going to come in, go to the Bible on-line and search for verses about forgiveness. Then I was going to post my thoughts on it and what I may need to do in my quest to forgive those who do me and my loved ones harm. But it turns out, I didn't even need to do a search.
When I open my email first thing in the morning, I always go through new, unread emails to see what I need to read, and what can be tossed. Today, I received an email from my aunt Cheryl. Cheryl rarely emails me, and this one happened to be sent to several people in our family. I went ahead and opened it to see what it said. It turns out, she was emailing us todays entry from an online devotional that she does called "The 21 Day Habit". Today was Day 3, and the topic? FORGIVENESS. I didn't need to go online to search for verses on forgiveness, because they were right there for me when I opened my e-mail. Here are a couple of them:
You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Colossians 3:13
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:31-32
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't think it was any small coincidence that I found this in my Inbox this morning.
I'm still feeling the sting from the events of the past, and the present, and probably the future. But it is my job to be the bigger person and forgive. It won't be easy, but I will try.
8 comments:
Great post. My thoughts have been on forgiveness a lot lately too. No one has done any huge wrongs to me, I just have a hard time letting go sometimes. But, I hear you, it is so hard. I can see through examples in my family what a life of holding on to stuff can do to you, and that's not what I want for myself. Let me know if you have any breakthroughs--I'd love some ideas.
I'm convinced that God doesn't deal in coincidences - but rather in intervention into our lives at our point of need. As I've posted several times, He knows what we need, when we need it, and who He can use to help us. He is so good.
Letting go is so hard, yet so necessary. Not only do we learn to forgive, but then we must let go of the knee-jerk reaction we feel inside at the mention of these people or events. God is faithful in the completion of who we are in Him.
This is beautiful, Kristen!
Wow. That made me tingle. I remember once watching the good Doctor (Phil) once and I was having some forgiveness struggles. That day he was talking to a woman that was struggling to let go. He equated her life to a car ride. She was only looking through the rear window at everything she had passed. In the meantime she was missing what was to the sides of her and what was ahead of her.
I don't know why, but that made sense to me and it was the catalyst that I needed to start letting go.
I hope you find yours.
I don't believe you getting that e-mail was a coincidence either.
Forgiveness is hard, I think we're all working on it.
what a great post! isn't it funny how God puts things in our paths when we need them most? how awesome!
the dream you had--too funny! about 2 nights ago i dreamed about gina at workingmomofliam.blogspot.com (whom i've never met). dreams are the weirdest things but it is so neat b/c none of us will probably ever meet but in our dreams, we can do anything we want!! it is too bad we can't really have a play date!!
A woman in our church many years ago hurt me and it took years to get over it. Now, I can talk with her without it hurting. What I found helpful was to begin to pray for her. It is like beginning to see someone through God's eyes instead of your own eyes which makes the difference. Sometimes it was almost a moment by moment kind of forgiveness. I think of the scripture...bless those who curse you and do goood to those who despitefully use you. I've blessed through clenched teeth before, but there is a release in blessing because it turns into praying for that person which in turn helps to release them to God. That is the only way I know to get rid of unforgiveness. Blessings...Cheryl
Being the bigger person is so darn hard. Every once in awhile it's nice to just be small for a little while.
I love the pictures, by the way!
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