12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
that verse is from Colossians 3; my pastor has been doing a series on forgiveness, a tough topic indeed, and i am very thankful and grateful that in my life right now i feel no need to offer forgiveness and as far as i am aware no one needs forgiveness from me. but i am trying with all my heart to learn from this series, because i believe this is a very difficult and important lesson for me to learn. i can only think of three people in all my 30 years that i have had to work to forgive and it took time, effort, space, and constant prayer to clear my spirit. but thankfully i am on the other side of it and can speak to and even laugh with those people in moments although they have never completely regained my trust, they are not close enough to me anymore that they need to. but having been through those, i am trying hard to learn from this series because i learned in my situation that unforgiveness eats at you like a nasty cancer, always on your mind, always present even in the good days. through my experience i had help, but not necessarily biblical verses to lean on. this verse last week was pivotal for me and it is my hope that i can help so many i see around me struggling with forgiving. i can understand the hurt, the terribly pain, but in my experience i found that constant forgiveness was the only way i could find my sanity. over and over and over and over and over, until honestly i was tired of every time i thought of them or saw them i immediately asked for forgiveness for the nasty thoughts that came to mind, and then one day when i was in such a habit of asking for forgiveness toward them that i actually asked god to bless them and then i knew…i had made it to the other side. and so from then on, i stopped needing to ask for forgiveness because whenever they came to mind or i crossed their path, i asked god to be in their life, and to bless them abundantly. it was so liberating to my soul, jason and i have since had dinner with them a couple of times, some of them are not in my daily life, but i talk to them occasionally, or comment on facebook. and i am so glad. talk to me, i love to talk, i give way too much advise, but i love you and i am honest and all i say comes straight from my heart.