Forgiveness - Oh Yeah!

I’m doing a Bible Study this summer with three ladies from my BSF class. It’s on how to love people. Hmmm. Sounds easy, does hard. This week we are studying forgiveness, and they asked the question, who are you finding it difficult to forgive. Well, naturally, the first person that comes to mind is—my husband! Yes, that person you spend most of every day and night with. Yeah, that one. I guess it would beg credibility if you didn’t have a few ups and downs with the person you’re with practically 24/7.

Like for instance this morning—all I did was ask if before he left town for two days he could please take care of the stack of boxes and stuff that he has been “storing” directly in front of my washer and dryer for the past five days. Well, you would have thought I’d asked him to dig up the driveway and install a new sewer line. According to him, my world is so small and he has so many more important things on his mind, etc, etc, etc. After slamming out the back door because I didn’t really feel like kissing him good-bye, he roared off for the next two days. Probably just as well. I don’t know about him, but I’m over it and will forgive. He’ll come around sooner or later. Hope it’s by Friday night when he returns.

Okay, so God has me in a study about why it’s so important to forgive those who hurt or offend you. It’s one of those things that you know is right, but you don’t feel like doing right away. What you feel like doing is saying, “What a jerk!” Which of course I’ve already done and I’m over it. Yes, well, we are all jerks at some time or another, aren’t we? And God so inconveniently says, “If you do not forgive your brother who sins against you, your father in heaven will not forgive you for your sins.”

There’s a whole lot more to this in this study I’m doing, stuff about humbling yourself, not condemning others and freeing yourself from the garbage of resentment and bitterness. Yes, yes, the last thing I ever want to be is a bitter old woman. And there are a lot of them. And many of them are in churches. As my pastor would say—“Yes, they are.” So, okay, let’s take a big breath. Gary does have a lot on his mind, especially getting ready to leave for a big business trip, and yes my world is a bit smaller than his. Of course, that doesn’t give him the right to yell at me over a simple little reminder. But so what. How important is this—really?

There was a quote at the beginning of my lesson today, it said:

“Love is never letting a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.”

Okay, God, I hear you, and I do love him—heart, soul, mind and body. Thank you, Lord for teaching me one more time how to be more like you. I’ll never get it right this side of heaven, but then you already know that, too, don’t you.