Thursday's Ten: the one on FORGIVENESS

If you have read my blog at all or if you know anything that is going on with me.. you would know that I am in a season of so many things and times in my life. One being a season of forgiveness and healing. So why not do a Thursday's Ten on random facts, thoughts, quotes, and musings of forgiveness? Warning: this is a VERY simple post on forgiveness due to my lack of time, and very jumbled... so forgive me? Not my best work.. oh well :)

1. If you do not forgive you are really only hurting yourself. They are not hurting, heck they have probably moved on and have possibly even forgotten about you or whatever has happened between you. SO forgiveness is so key to healing on all levels. You can not heal, nor grow, nor move on without it.

2. Forgiveness (even for those of us blessed with the gift of Mercy, and blessed ABUNDANTLY with it) is sometimes just plain, sticking hard! I personally could have never even started on this journey of forgiveness and healing with out God... He carries me when I just want to lay on the floor and cry, or when I just want to be a witch to people. It is amazing what happens in my life when I allow the Spirit (or when He just comes in anyway) to move and work in my life.

3. Forgiveness is not about forgetting. The whole forgive and forget thing... would be nice, but that is not really what forgiveness is about. We are after all somewhat human. It is about releasing someone from what they have done to you, and releasing someone from the chains that YOU have allowed them to have on you. (After note... I wrote MOST of this awhile ago and this week saw something on a friend's status about this.. love how the Holy Spirit works in all things)

4. "Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part" -Philip Yancey. This is so true. God's grace does flow to all of us, and especially the lowest... so why can I not practice even a fraction of this?

5. Forgiveness is NOT about letting people walk all over you, and if you think it is... you missed the point. You can have a balance, which is something I am really trying to let God change in me. I often confused the 2. You will still live in the chains people have put around you if you do. You do not even have to speak to the person you forgive again. That person may not even be alive.

6. "To forgive is to set a prisoner free, and discover that prisoner was you" Lewis B. Smedes

7."Forgiving is love's toughest work, and love's biggest risk. If you twist it into something it was never meant to be, it can make you a doormat or an insufferable manipulator. Forgiving seems almost unnatural. Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do. But forgiving is love's power to break nature's rule." ~Lewis B. Smedes

8."Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation"~Roberto Assagioli which goes along with one of my favorite songs of all time by Coldplay (surprised?). Death and All His Friends:

"No I don't wanna battle from beginning to end;
I don't wanna cycle, recycle revenge;
I don't wanna follow death and all his friends".

9. Learn to forgive yourself. If you can not even learn this.. it makes it much harder to forgive others. I am learning to do this daily. Learning to accept God's mercy, God's grace, God's love, and God's beautiful forgiveness in my own life. Something that does NOT come easily for me. I often have an inkling to think that I am being "punished" for my past mistakes. In reality my Father does not act that way, because that is an inertly human behavior that we have created for ourselves in our sin and guilt that has arisen.

10. a little less serious.. I know I posted this song yesterday, but it really came to me at the perfect time!

I've been trying to live without you now
But I miss you, baby
The more I know, the less I understand
And all the things I thought I figured out, I have to learn again
I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter
But my will gets weak
And my heart is so shattered
But I think it's about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if, even if you don't love me anymore

All the people in your life who've come and gone
They let you down, you know they hurt your pride
Better put it all behind you; cause life goes on
You keep carrin' that anger, it'll eat you up inside