Monday, April 23, 2007
Forgive and Forget
Sometimes I tell myself I need to lighten up. The fact is, I do need to lighten up, and I will probably always be working on being too intense or coming on in too strong a way. I love having a good time, and I love making people laugh, but for some reason, when I come to this blog, it often brings out the contempletive side of me. Having said that...
The other day, I feel God used yet another incident as a parent to teach me something about Himself. For those who have been parents much longer than I have, it goes without saying that parenthood is ripe with spiritual lessons. I am still wide-eyed about the gold mine that parenting is in understanding more about God. And last week, I caught a new glimpse of the concept of forgiveness.
The phrase "forgive and forget" is a cliche. Until last week, I always thought it was impossible. Though I do not struggle with holding grudges, actually getting to that point has always seemed distant. Then it happened. My daughter lied to me for the first time (that I know of). After going through the unfortunate reality of discipline, she said sorry, and I forgave her.
Later on, as I drove to work, I realized that it never occured to me to not forgive her. And then I realized that maybe that's how God is. As we are his children, his care for us is such that he does not hold grudges. For some reason, it is harder to truly forget a wrong done to one by a friend, sibling, coworker, parent, or any other type of person. But it was not so with my daughter. It was second nature to forget her wrong. I would never hold a grudge against my daughter. I think in this way, I learned something new about God's love for me, and how I need to extend that same type of forgiveness to any repentant person who asks for my forgiveness.
The other day, I feel God used yet another incident as a parent to teach me something about Himself. For those who have been parents much longer than I have, it goes without saying that parenthood is ripe with spiritual lessons. I am still wide-eyed about the gold mine that parenting is in understanding more about God. And last week, I caught a new glimpse of the concept of forgiveness.
The phrase "forgive and forget" is a cliche. Until last week, I always thought it was impossible. Though I do not struggle with holding grudges, actually getting to that point has always seemed distant. Then it happened. My daughter lied to me for the first time (that I know of). After going through the unfortunate reality of discipline, she said sorry, and I forgave her.
Later on, as I drove to work, I realized that it never occured to me to not forgive her. And then I realized that maybe that's how God is. As we are his children, his care for us is such that he does not hold grudges. For some reason, it is harder to truly forget a wrong done to one by a friend, sibling, coworker, parent, or any other type of person. But it was not so with my daughter. It was second nature to forget her wrong. I would never hold a grudge against my daughter. I think in this way, I learned something new about God's love for me, and how I need to extend that same type of forgiveness to any repentant person who asks for my forgiveness.
# posted by Unknown @ 1:33 PM 
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It sure is wonderful the things that God chooses to teach us through our parenting. Sometimes I think we just wonder why things happen a certain way with our children, but I think maybe they could happen the way they do as much for our sake- the lessons we need to learn- as well as their sake. I love you, dear son.
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