***NOTE: Please be sure to pre-register for next year's Mothers Together - click here. This will help us greatly with prep for next year.
Begin at Forgiven
I wish I could sit down over a cup of tea with me from ten years ago. Two things I would encourage her (myself) to do is offer forgiveness quickly and receive forgiveness completely. I knew ten years ago that Jesus took my sins at the cross and bore my punishment, offering me complete forgiveness and reconciliation with God. However, the hurts I carried with me from my young and colorful youth didn’t disappear with my new life. I just hadn’t discovered the emotional tools necessary for building new relationships with myself and others that intentionally accepted forgiveness as a beginning and not an end; as a starting point for healing and not a grand finale of resolve. Just as my new life in Christ begins with a foundation of me accepting His forgiveness of my sins, I needed to realize that my earthly relationships have to reflect that truth too. Living as someone who has been forgiven of so much gives me permission to not hold someone else’s sins against them. I can say in full confidence that it is just not my job. If you’re still not sure to whom the job belongs let Psalm 103:8-14 sink in for a good while.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
The Bible has so much to say on our forgiven life in Christ and what God expects from His forgiven children. I encourage you to go read Ephesians 4, Matthew 6:14-15, Mark 11:25 and Philippians 2:12-13 for starters and prayerfully ask God to break down any walls that may be keeping you from experiencing and offering His forgiveness. God willing, my next ten years will be filled with crumbling walls and broken chains because life is just too short to not live in the abounding joy of my Forgiver and share it with everyone else.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m craving a cup of tea…
Heavenly Father, you show compassion to your children and as your child I ask for grace to pour over any areas of my soul that are holding on to past hurts. Let your words be my words and your desires my desires, Lord. If I am withholding forgiveness from someone open my eyes and show me how to offer it freely as you have done for me. I ask these things in the name of Jesus, the author of my story, Amen.
