I want to share a quick story about betrayal and forgiveness, just one that changed my ways of thinking forever.....Collossians 3:12-3:13 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering: bearing with one another, and forgiving one another: even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Now of course the whole chapter is great speaking on how we should live higher like that of the Lord and not live of this earth. Well the point being most of us do live of this earth he knew that and gave his life for our sins. But here is what I learned "from the mouths of babes". My daughter had been offended . Dealing with behaviours of this has not been easy at all. But when he was sentenced and I had said somthing negative about it all (this was about 8 years ago), my daughter, bless her soul, looked up at me that day standing on our front porch and spoke words of truth that rang right through to my heart!! ~~~~~ She said, "Mommy, I love him and forgive him. I dont have to like him or be near him or trust him, but God says we must love and forgive even our enemy." I was then speechless. Then enemy in my heart wanted to scream back how can you forgive this such and such....but I knew she was right, and I knew somehow that I must learn to forgive those that have hurt me and my loved ones. I slowly put it away and bit by bit over the next few years leaned to forgive and it was not easy, until a few years later 2003. I will never forget how strongly God gave me the answer to what forgiveness truly meant.~~~~~ I was working in a drug and alcohol rehab. And the clients before me that I worked with on a daily basis of this 30 day in house treatment program, were very angry at life and the things that had been dealt to them over the years. I had a woman speak out in a group meeting I was holding, she spoke about being angry and about sexual abuse. I was very familiar with her anger as both my daughter and I personally went through this each our own cases as young children. Right then in the midst of our group meeting I spoke out something that I know came from God. He used me right at that moment to give this woman a way to forgive and heal, and at the same time, tell me the true meaning of forgiveness so that I could finally start to heal as well.~~~~~ I spoke out in front of every client in that group, "I know in this clinical setting I can not really share in a group my beliefs in God, and you may not agree with what I am about to say and I will take no offense but I just have to say this". I paused and then out it came, "Forgiveness is not something you do to help the other person. Forgiveness simply means that you give your anger at this person or persons up to God. You see when you forgive someone you are not saying that what they did was right or that they are allowed to offend you again. What you are saying is that you are going to move on and you are going to let God take care of that person and not seek vengance with your anger. That only hurts you more. Just simply give it to God and start to heal."~~~~~The lesson that day spoke once again right to my heart. And all this time I had been learning to forgive and not yet truly understanding it or healing fully as I know God wanted me to. Sometimes when I get mad today it still may take me a day or a few minutes to forgive and move past the situation. But the fact is I cant seem to not forgive. It is truly a healing thing to forgive. I believe God knew this when he commanded us to forgive. And finally I grasped that forgiving had nothing to do with that person before me. Jesus already died for his or her sins just as he did my own. So forgiving simply was intended for us to release or emotions of the situation to God and trust that he would take care of it and that it was soley a tool in me giving my life up to God. Sorry if it seems abit of a long blog msg here but I was led to share it. So thank you anyone who takes the time in reading this and may God bless you.
