To Forgive or To Be Forgiven... Yes Please!

My momma kindly informed me that my posts get a little.....lengthy when I haven't “let it out” for a few days. I will try to correct that, not that it will ACTUALLY make them any shorter... But please, feel free to stop reading, this is more for me than you and more for expression than interpretation anyways. Social media is a great way to get out your thoughts, feelings, opinions, and everything else too. Of course I don't mean drama, bullying, he said/she said, all that teenage stuff... So here goes today...

Tonight I am thinking about forgiveness. For some reason (literally, Lord knows!) forgiveness has come into my mind so often over the past few days. It is such an integral part of our daily life and being a true, loving Christian. I don't think we notice how often we forgive or begrudge in our everyday lives. Whether it is driving down the road and someone pulls out in front of us, standing in line at the grocery store and someone cuts, or even someone forgetting to return your call. We always have the option to forgive. Sometimes we hold on to the anger and grudge for far too long-holding onto it at all is too long. Other things we find so many reasons to hold on. Whether it is pride, anger, resentment, offense, etc. there is no reason good enough to hold onto it.

I see this example taken so much further in families. One person offends a family member (mother/child, sibling/sibling, etc.) and then one or both holds onto it for years, frequently forgetting why it ever started. The age old example is the “Hatfield's” and “McCoy's.” We've all heard they were a dueling family but never really know why. From my stance, the why is not now nor ever was truly important. The greatest, grandest, largest offenses deserve forgiveness. No matter how cruel, mean, or ruthless the other party was, refusing forgiveness hurts you more than anyone else. Refusing to give forgiveness is painful, energy required, and just torture on the soul. We are made and meant to be forgiving and forgiven.

Taking example from God, we see the ultimate forgiveness. We offend our Father and creator every day. We know His love, his requests for us, and everyday we offend him. We are rarely in line with everything he asks of us, yet his love and forgiveness never waivers. He constantly forgives us without hesitation. Because of Jesus Christ, we are freely forgiven and guided into grace. We are given chance after chance to prove ourselves and our love for him. We are allowed to repent and try again. The greatest love, greatest example for us is unconditional.. Yet in our everyday lives we choose to ignore forgiveness in light of success and pride. I'd like to embrace forgiveness and rebuild bridges. I'd like to show love, support, and forgiveness to my enemies and truly mean it. Let's repair relationships and move past the grudges. Let's embrace unconditional love. Let's follow THE great example.