Facing Forgiveness

There are many topics I enjoy discussing, however, the topic of forgiveness is one of my favorites. The reason is simple: forgiveness is FREEING! 

No matter how great the offense or abuses, along the path to healing lies in forgiveness!

Facing your past & forgiving yourself and any person who have hurt you, and making amends for the pain that you have caused others is the only lasting solution. Forgiveness breaks the cycle! It doesn’t settle all the questions of blame, justice, or fairness, but it does allow relationships to heal & possibly start over. The idea of healing is fantastic since it means to make sound or whole and to restore.

Forgiveness is the act of excusing a mistake or offense.

Definition of forgive: 

• To give up resentment of or claim to requital for (forgive an insult)
• To grant relief from payment of (forgive a debt)
• To cease to feel resentment against (an offender)
• To pardon (forgive one's enemies)

Let’s talk further about a definition for forgiveness:

  

A definition for forgiveness could be -- giving up my right to hurt you, for hurting me. It is impossible to live on this fallen planet without getting hurt, offended, misunderstood, lied to, and rejected. Learning how to respond properly is one of the basics of the Christian life.

Don't delay, forgive today!

Facing Forgiveness written by Vicki Freund Duffy

Glimmer of Hope!

Have you ever been to a concert or a place where everything goes dark, then everyone lights up their lighters?

Instantly, in what was utter darkness is now full of glimmering light. Imagine that everyone turns off their lighters, all but one.

• In that darkness you will be able to see that light flickering, that glimmer, no matter how dark it is. No matter how dark, that light shines on through and cuts through that darkness, making its light known!

Darkness cannot capture light, no matter how small that light might be.Sometimes life circumstances can feel as though they are overwhelming, and at times totally unbearable. BUT, just as the light glimmers in the darkest of darkness, there is hope.

• There is hope even in what might appear as the most hopeless of situations. You will get through this situation, as God is for you!

The next time you have a situation that seems hopeless, or when you think your life offers no hope whatsoever, remember the glimmer of light. Think on how that small glimmer of light breaks through the darkest of darkness. Then when you see that in your mind, apply that to your situation and realize that even if it is only a glimmer, it is something, and that offers hope.

 Your light will not burn out, you have hope and a future!

Necklace in the Well

• What issue do you have?
• Do you even know what it is anymore?
• Has your issue been buried by other problems and unhealthy coping mechanisms?

Are you at a point where you just want to be numb? Let me tell you about the necklace in the well:

• There is a necklace at the bottom of a well, which is full of water. The necklace represents your issue (being raped, neglected as a child, abusive life, or a traumatic event, etc.).
• You go to the well and the necklace accidentally drops into the well and it drops to the bottom. You are not sure how to get it out, but realize to get it that you might get hurt doing it and you would get all wet, so you decide to let it stay there.
• Every now and then you go and look inside the well and you see the necklace has started to change in appearance.

Over the years you notice that you can barely see your necklace, as there have been other things that were thrown into the well. A few more years pass and you can no longer see your necklace as there is a cloud in the water from the muck and mire and other debris that made its way into the well. You then think to yourself, "If I had only gotten my necklace when it fell, it wouldn't be ruined and I would have."

Your problem is like the necklace. Whatever the traumatic issue was, it has become buried by other things; buried by other problems as a result of the 'real issue' (unhealthy coping mechanisms such as cutting, drinking, drugs, anorexic or bulimic behavior). It can get buried by turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as harming your body by cutting, burning, hair-pulling, drinking, drugs, developing an eating disorder, etc.

The issue will not go away by avoiding it. By letting your problem just sit at the bottom of the well, it is only going to get covered up and cluttered by other things, soon you may not even know what the real issue is because so many other problems have risen as a result of never dealing with the issue from the beginning.

Had the necklace been taken out of the well as soon as it was dropped, you could have done with it what you wanted, rather than having it get all tainted. Thinking about the work that would go into getting the necklace may have seemed more tedious than it was worth, as you may not have thought how it would affect you in the long run.

Thinking about the work that would go into facing your issue and getting it out of your mind and heart may seem more overwhelming than just to leave it buried there.

Just like the necklace, the issue gets covered up by being left there. Now, in order to get to the necklace you have to go through all the other junk to get to it, but that is where you take it at your own pace, a little accomplishment at a time.

All things are possible to those that believe, you just gotta believe!

Necklace In The Well written by Vicki F. Duffy