A Lesson Learned

This statement is such a proclamation of my life and all it's good and bad experiences. I am one to say, "no, I do not regret any of the lessons I learned especially the ones that brought me to my knees...my only true regret is knowing how I must have hurt my Heavenly Father so many times." I was born in a very sheltered life with one other sibling. My mother was and still is someone who always grounded in Faith. My father was raised in knowing God, but turned away at an early age. It was my faithful mother who instilled the discipline of going to church in my brother and I in our early years of life. I look back now and see just how hard it must have been for mom to keep on keeping on with raising us in church, while my father stayed away from the church. It did nor does not make my father a bad person, he is a good man and has always been a wonderful provider...he just has not hit his place in life to come back to Christ. It hurts to see him age knowing that he has not committed his heart back to God. My brother and I was raised knowing that my mother was holding in her feelings with my father's infidelity. My mom remained with my father, she remain in her marriage and gave forgiveness to my father. It was forgiveness, but mainly she kept giving her marriage to God and looking for Him to guide her emotionally and in every aspect of her life. My mother may have never forgotten all those years, but she did forgive. And when those feeling began to overwhelm her, she would seek God to bring her peace. She never stop praying for my father and I would not be surprised if she had even prayed for his mistress of all those years. What does that say? It says that God wants us to forgive! He does not want us to harbor feeling of hurt...we are to give those emotions to Him so that He can provide us peace with the situation. If we walk around with all the weight of hurt and pains of situations...they stand in our way of our walk with Him. How can our hearts be filled with Him, if we harbor pain or hurt of what others have done to us? It does indeed affect our walk with God. My mother gave her pain to our Heavenly Father and he got her through those years. My father never left us for the other woman...in fact my parents are still married and working on their 50year anniversary. You ask, why I am starting out this journey with my mother's story...well, it is not really my mother's story as much as how it effected me growing up. It gives you a little background of my world as a child. But MORE IMPORTANTLY, it says volumes about forgiveness to others. We are to forgive others and that every time those feelings come bubbling up from our well within...we are to send prayers up for those people who have hurt us or disappointed us in life. Ephesians 4:32, "...forgive each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." This small act of my mom to my father was far smaller that Jesus's remark while on the cross "Father forgive them" Luke 23:34. So as a child, I watched my mother be such a living example of the type of forgiveness our sweet Father wants from us. 2 Corinthians 2:10 "But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ.." It was later in my years I would put into practice my mother's example of forgiveness. It was then that I truly understood the peace and loving embrace that we receive when we give our deep hurts and pains to the Lord. He graciously and eagerly takes them from us and provides the most UNBELIEVABLE PEACE to us. So my dear sweet ladies...remember forgiveness in the small and big situations, the Lord wants to reward you with the peace only He can give to you. (( hugs to each of you ))