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Damaging Ourselves
by Sexual abuse. Deep hurts and wounds. Victimization. Painful pasts. Whatever it is in life that makes your jaw clench and tears come immediately to your eyes that is the very thing that wounds your heart. It hurts and it lives on inside of you. We have all been through "stuff." Your "stuff" may be different than the "stuff" I've been through but the hurt is just as personal and painful. Hurt no matter what form it comes in makes up a part of who we are. We made choices about how we were going to deal with the issue. For many of us, those choices were to either shove it way down inside of us or out of the picture. But still, it lives on inside of us. Forgiveness is a hard thing to do. No one ever said it would be easy. It's not easy because we feel like we are letting someone off the hook. We feel as if we're releasing them from the responsibility of what they did to us and it doesn't seem fair or right. We can feel so justified in holding our personal judgment and punishment over their heads even if that punishment is simply us removing ourselves and our love from their lives. Pride can wrap itself so intricately in our hearts and souls that we don't even realize how deeply we are holding onto a wound. We don't see that by refusing to offer grace, mercy, and forgiveness we are damaging ourselves. God is the ultimate judge. It is up to Him to discipline and correct someone else not me. There may be times where I need to hold up certain boundaries in my life but if the other person is repentant and asks for renewal, forgiveness, and grace; who am I to deny them? Who am I to continue to be cold-hearted towards them? I have only become like them. The only freedom we will ever find when it comes to wounds, hurts, and pain is in forgiveness. The only way we will ever be able to truly heal and move forward is in forgiveness. The only way we can be right with God and expect Him to forgive us our mistakes is if we too, forgive the mistakes of others. We can't hide away in life and expect things to go away. For truth lives on inside of us. How we feel and the choices of our heart lives on inside of us. Whether or not you choose to make a difference, be different, and move forward is truly up to you. ~Dionna Sanchez is Founder of EmphasisOnMoms.com and freelance writes. She also blogs at http://beautyinthestorm.blogspot.com Contact her at [email protected] Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |