Amen! It takes so much negative energy to be mean. It doesn't cost anything to be nice. I wonder why so many people spend their lives living contrary to this. Forgiveness is so "freeing." Perhaps most people don't take to heart the words of the "Our Father" ... "forgive US our trespasses as we FORGIVE those who trespass against us." Do people REALLY want God to forgive them in the same slow (or absent) manner that they forgive others?
Anne Marie, what a great point, how long are we willing to hold on to our grudges, how freeing of our spirit it that very act of forgiveness! Martin Luther King wrote “Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” Gordon B. Hinckley in his book Standing for Something: 10 Neglected virtues that will heal our heart and home wrote,“The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology. Is there any problem that could not be solved among people who possessed the humility and largeness of spirit and soul to do either -- or both -- when needed?”
“...if anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will be the same again.” W. Paul Young
Amen! It takes so much negative energy to be mean. It doesn't cost anything to be nice. I wonder why so many people spend their lives living contrary to this. Forgiveness is so "freeing." Perhaps most people don't take to heart the words of the "Our Father" ... "forgive US our trespasses as we FORGIVE those who trespass against us." Do people REALLY want God to forgive them in the same slow (or absent) manner that they forgive others?
ReplyDeleteAnne Marie, what a great point, how long are we willing to hold on to our grudges, how freeing of our spirit it that very act of forgiveness!
DeleteMartin Luther King wrote “Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”
Gordon B. Hinckley in his book Standing for Something: 10 Neglected virtues that will heal our heart and home wrote,“The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology. Is there any problem that could not be solved among people who possessed the humility and largeness of spirit and soul to do either -- or both -- when needed?”
“...if anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will be the same again.”
DeleteW. Paul Young