If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will you Father forgive your trespasses.
Mathew 6:14, 15
I think alot of us struggle with forgiveness. We somehow want people to DESERVE to be forgiven. We want to know people will NOT do it again and won't hurt us again. We want to hold grudges and be angry, because we are RIGHT!
Forgiveness is about US not them. Forgiving frees you from the anger and hate that dwell in holding a grudge. Those are not fruits of the Spirit, to be sure.
This week I had a hard time with Forgiveness. My usually wonderful, yet human, husband had been taking change from a jar of mine. He had missed the memo that this money had come from my grandmother. She was a woman of little money and yet she saved all the coins of all the grandkids birth years. So I shared 1974 with my cousin Bill and she would sort those coins from her change and put them away for us. She touched each coin with her tiny line-covered hands. She likely had times where the end of the month came before the end of the money and she could have taken a few bucks from any of us without our knowledge, but didn't and still she saved.
I was so angry at DH when he I found the jar, I had intended to use it as a symbol of her helping me to buy our home. He was sure he didn't know what it was when he took it and I believe that, but then I was SO mad that he hadn't listened to me tell him (8 years ago) and that stung even more. I left the house so angry I couldnt' breath. I took the lighter jar and sat in a parking lot and sobbed over that money. I spent most of the week angry about it and thinking how Grandma never had nearly what we had and yet DH used her money for things (pop etc..) she probably gave up for me to have this money.
I became convicted of my feelings a few days ago when I realized that the EMOTION my grandma put in there was important and she too had an imperfect husband (i never met him) and she was also a wonderful wife by all acounts. The biblical description of a good wife/woman was read at her funeral, even. I never heard her say a bad word about another human, even some who had scarred her deeply. My language slips more in a day than hers did in a lifetime. She would NOT want me angry at my husband. She would want me to forgive him for MY sake and HIS. Even more so, God would want me to forgive this too! I am still sad and have some moments, but I am working on forgiveness.
Is there someone you should forgive for YOUR sake today?
What if HE didn't forgive us when we misused his belongings?
7 comments:
First of all I wouldn't worry about signing last week's linky and this one too. I would delete the one for last week but I'm not sure that it wouldn't take both of them off and I wouldn't want to do that. So let's just leave them both on.
Forgiveness is probably one of the hardest thing for many people. I've always been taught that because God has forgiven me of so much, how could I not forgive another person. There is so much in the scriptures about how important it is to forgive. There was a time when I was hurt deeply by some members of the church where my husband was the minister. I actually hated them and I had never really felt that way about anyone in my whole life. It was a long time before I could forgive them. The thing that help me the most was recalling again the story of Joseph and his brothers and how he forgave them. I finally did forgive everyone involved and I felt so much better. Forgiveness is not easy, but it is absolutely necessary. In fact, the Bible says if we do not forgive others we will not be forgiven ourselves. I think you are absolutely right that your grandmother would want you to forgive.
Blessings to you,
Charlotte
So sorry that happened! Glad you are working through it and chose to forgive. Your grandmother sounds like she was one special woman that taught you about forgiveness. 1 Cor 13 the love chapter always ministers. Talk to God about it, and let go and let God take care of your hurt. And when it tries to come back on you, rebuke those thoughts in the name of Jesus. Thanks for sharing, this post was important to you and those of us reading it today.
Blessings-
You husband sounds human; you do too. As a matter of fact, the same thing is wrong with me! But, wow, you sure worked through this problem without my help.
Forgiveness is a choice; it's an ACTION. And, it's a hard thing to do. I struggle with making the correct choice to forgive those humans who have hurt me. Good lesson. Thanks for sharing. Come visit me and share my Spiritual Sunday post. Be sure to check out my sidebar as I'm giving away 3 books.
What a human story. Thanks for sharing it. It is a lot easier to tell a story about somebody else when talking about the need to forgive. Your story packs a punch and is more helpful. I struggle with forgiveness on a regular basis. Charlotte is my wife and I just now read her comments. I will say "Amen" to what she said and close. Thanks again for sharing your story.
Oh what a perfect post! We had someone hurt us so deeply with lies this week. It's so hard for me to forgive lies. I certainly needed to read that.
Your story about your grandma is so touching. And I'm so sorry that incident happened to you. Sometimes men don't remember some of the details of life we tell them. They act without thinking to the deep parts of feelings and memories.
Thank you for such a great post at the right time!!
Hugs,Sherry
What a great post! Sometimes I wonder why it is so hard to forgive when indeed it's what the Lord wants. Thank-you for sharing about your grandma she sounds like an amazing lady. I can only hope that someday my grandchildren will have such kind words to say about me.
God Bless,
ginger
It was fun to read about You and cool that you are a licensed scuba driver:)
I like what you made for your neice:) I'm going to make a tassel, one of these days:)
Forgiveness is so important and so hard to do...
Warmly,
Deb
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