She said something hurtful. Feeling vulnerable\u00a0at that point in my life I took it to heart. I let it fester like a neglected wound. I let the pain sit, have a home in my heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It felt silly. Words that were not meant to hurt. Words that if others heard would not seem offensive. My pride kept me from going to God with it. I couldn’t tell Him of the hurt I carried. The\u00a0hurt I couldn’t let go of.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Days turned to weeks. Weeks to months and then into years. My heart did not change. I continued to carry pain. Instead of dealing I chose to avoid, ignore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She, my friend, was no longer a part of my life. I chose to avoid, ignore her rather than deal with the sin in my heart. I chose avoidance\u00a0over forgiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the years went by. As I asked God to search my heart and reveal my sins I saw my wrong. And we all know two wrongs don’t make a right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I needed to let go of the burden of hurt. I needed to see my friend, my sister in Christ through the eyes of Jesus. Harboring hurt, avoiding the awkwardness\u00a0was not helping anyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The world teaches us to avoid and ignore not forgive. Jesus teaches us to forgive not avoid.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n My stubbornness was keeping me from a beautiful friendship. In the letting go of pride, in the letting go of the burden I carried I found forgiveness. I found peace and a fresh love for my friend.\u00a0<\/p>\n Forgiveness freed me. Freed me from the prison of unnecessary hurt and pride. Freed us to have a\u00a0relationship, fellowship again.\u00a0<\/p>\n I am grateful to my loving, patient Father. I am undeserving of His kindness. Yet He freely gives to me, to you.\u00a0<\/p>\n Will you choose forgiveness? Will you let the hardness crack?\u00a0<\/p>\n If there is a situation in your life that needs forgiveness I pray you seek it. I pray you seek forgiveness over avoidance.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Matthew 6:14-15\u00a0For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,<\/span><\/span> <\/em>but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.<\/em> ESV<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Matthew 18:21-22\u00a0Then Peter came up and said to him, \u201cLord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?\u201d<\/span> <\/em>Jesus said to him,<\/em>\u201cI do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.<\/em> ESV<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Mark 11:25\u00a0But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.<\/em> NLT<\/p>\n Colossians 3:13\u00a0bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.<\/em> ESV<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" She said something hurtful. Feeling vulnerable\u00a0at that point in my life I took it to heart. I let it fester like a neglected wound. I let the pain sit, have a home in my heart.\u00a0 It felt silly. Words that were not meant to hurt. Words that if others heard would not seem offensive. My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","sharing_disabled":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[9,31],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/shutterstock_261247157.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7NWg5-bO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":735,"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions\/735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/godsgoggles.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}