Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Forgiveness - ReRun

I first posted this in March, after doing serveral posts about my mom and then my father. I had wanted to cover forgiveness before moving on to other things. I noticed in the advice my mother gave me yesterday that she is concerned about me falling into a pit of dispair and unforgivness. And while I am glad for the warning, I feel that I have dealt with some of the issues that she has not.

I do know that I have some new readers who probably have not read the story of my mother. If you are interested it is 4 parts and in the month of March. The story of my father is also interesting it is only 3 parts and also in March.

There was one other bit of advice in the previous post that I was surprised nobody hit on. I don't agree with my mother that I am suppose to let God worry about other people's faith. I feel that we are all called to GO and teach others about Jesus. I may cover that in a future post.

Thanks for letting me unload my baggage. If you have been around awhile you can stop reading now. :)


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I plan on writing more about my life soon. My Grammy was my best mentor/mother/friend in my childhood, actually in my life. She has been gone for 14 years now but I still hear her telling me how to bring my life to the feet of Jesus. How no matter what I have done my Abba Father would still love me and accept me. Where as it brought up some feelings of resentment telling my mom’s story and feelings of great grief to talk about my dad. When I tell my story about my Grammy I will be full of laughter, love and pride.

I thought that before I moved on to happier aspects of my life I would first talk about forgiveness. We know that when we confess our sins to the Lord that he forgives our sins. That the slate is washed clean with Jesus’ blood.

Oh, what a joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
Whose sins are put out of sight.
Yes, what a joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of sin. – Romans 4:7-8



How come it is harder to forgive others sin against us than it is for God to forgive our sins against him? Am I the only one that has at one time or another been stuck on the hamster wheel of holding someone’s sins over their heads? Unable to forgive them for an action that hurt me? What about when you love the person and they hurt you? Break your trust? Use you? How easy is it to just turn the other cheek and say “I forgive you”?

What is Forgiveness? What is the true definition of it?
1. To excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon.
2. To renounce anger or resentment against.

It took me a long time to really understand the depth of walking away from hurt. That I was suppose to treat that person as if nothing happened. But I also learned that the more unforgiveness I carried around the only one I was hurting was myself. I was stealing time from the Lord who wanted to work in my life. I was missing my blessings because I was stuck in unforgiveness.

One day I woke up and it was like God was sitting on the end of my bed. He was begging me to let him heal me. He told me to seek him first to heal my pain. At that moment I realized that I wanted the life he promised. I realized that I could forgive my mom for not being the best parent. I could forgive my dad for the things that were done to me but most of all for dying.

As I sit here today I reflect back on those things that caused me the most pain and I choose to not be a victim. I choose to be a Princess of my Divine Father! I am reconciled, loved, forgiven and most of all His child. My Heavenly Father Loves ME!!! YEAH!!! Guess what…..He loves all of you too.

Forgiveness is giving up hope
that you can change the past!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I choose not to be a victim. It is a choice, isn't it Theresa? Great post and great comment.

deleise said...

I love the part about how you were stealing time and missing blessings. That is so true!

Roger Garrett said...

I learned early on that holding onto hurt and not giving true forgiveness was harder than giving it. I have learned to set down the baggage and walk away. I swear I way less becasue of it :-)

How have you been feeling by the way. I have been praying for you. I hope you have had some relief

Natalie Witcher said...

Amazing that we can choose not to be a victim. Praise him.

Kim Heinecke said...

I think forgiveness is giving up your (perceived) right to pay someone back for (what you think) they deserve.

The process requires making the decision to forgive someone ONCE and having the discipline to live out that decision each day.

Heidi said...

Forgiveness is a process.
but
Forgetting is a challenge!!

I chose to do both under the blood of Jesus.

Some days its harder than others. I'm glad HE is forgiving!!!

Anonymous said...

Like our walk and our growth, forgiveness is a process. The deeper the hurt, the harder it is to forgive. But the good news is that the more willing we are to seek it, the quicker He answers our prayers.

Anonymous said...

I'm just so proud to know your story and know the choices you made and continue to make. You are a true OVERCOMER!!