At a minimum, we operate in 3 lanes of forgiveness: us being forgiven, us forgiving ourselves and us forgiving others. If we fail to operate in any 1 of the 3 lanes, the other 2 cannot be fully embraced. Have you considered the lengths to which you’ve been forgiven? None of us have been perfect (Romans 3:10 & 3:23); every last one of us (no matter your age, race, religion or socio-economic background) has missed the mark for being completely “good”. Forgiveness for saying something we’ve claimed we’d never say again; forgiveness for desiring something (or someone) that is attached to someone else and forgiveness for misdirected anger. Yet, no matter what test we’ve failed, forgiveness is possible. I don’t know about you, but I’m my own biggest critic. I rehearse my shortcomings and wonder what could have been, if only. . . One of the hardest people for me to forgive is me but we are to move forward, it can only be after forgiving ourselves and using those lessons we’ve learned from our failures. There is a huge difference between forgiveness and excusing; when the hurt is unintentional or minor, we excuse – forgiveness only comes into being when the hurt is deep. When we don’t forgive, we harbor and internalize the poison that pain brings. Forgiveness cleanses, purifies and perfects us because when we consider the lengths, depths and widths forgiveness had to cross to embrace us, we can extend it to others. Blessings, Rev. Antoinette
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AuthorRev. Antoinette Gatewood-Sykes, Inspirational Speaker Archives
May 2019
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