The Forgiveness Process
Part 12 | Letting Go and Moving Beyond
Introduction When this series began, I wrote the following: “What’s so hard about forgiveness? If you want to know the truth: Everything! From beginning to end it can be the most difficult process ever undertaken by some, very difficult by others, and a real struggle for all the rest. Forgiveness is foreign to our fallen [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Part 11 | The Forgiven Learning to Forgive
Introduction If I were to list all the things God has forgiven me of, not only would it be a long volume with many parts, but you would soon tire of reading of sin number umpteen coming up over and over again. You’d begin to wonder was I that slow of a learner, or why [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Part 10 | What True Forgiveness Looks Like
Introduction True forgiveness is a life-changing, redemptive, relationship change that takes those involved to a new and higher level of relating and in many cases brings them into the experiencing of God’s grace in ways never before experienced individually and collectively. It has God all though it and as a result what is experienced enjoys [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Part 9 | When the Process is Blocked
Introduction There are time when forgiveness cannot and should not be offered to an offender for to do so would undermine the focused relationship God intends to be present between you even though it is presently fractured by the offense that has been committed. When the offender is unwilling to enter into the Forgiveness Process [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Part 8 | How Forgiveness is Made to Happen
Introduction There are three sides to the Forgiveness Process: there is the side of the offended; the side of the offender; and God’s side who sides with the offended, the offender, and the entire Forgiveness Process itself. God has a vested interest in all involved, whether they recognize Him in it or not. He gave [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Part 7 | Dealing with the Hurt/Pain/Anger/Loss/Aftermath
Introduction Whenever we sustain an offense – the deeper the offense, the deeper the reaction – the first thing we need to do is make a reality check. Our natural instinct may be a knee-jerk reaction, an immediate questioning of “Why me?” or worse, to catastrophize and want to strike out in self-defense. This is [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Part 6 | Forgiveness Costs and Look Who Pays
We lived next to the center of our small New England hometown and had a large front yard so local kids congregated there for a ball game after school. Our Dad had only one rule: make it softball, not baseball. Well, on this particular afternoon, I was at bat, my brother Jack was pitching, and [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Part 5 | God Never Said It Would Be Easy, but. . .
It was 2:30 in the morning when Ruth was jarred awake by the ringing of her bedside phone. As she reached for it in the darkness, she knew instinctively good news does not normally come calling at 2:30 AM. Her first thoughts before finding the receiver were: Is it one of the kids or one [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Part 4 | The Forgiveness Process and How it Works
Relationships are so precious and needed that when they are broken and disrupted, nothing else seems the same. Our inner self cries for healing, reconciliation and a restoration to harmony. But for that to happen, the offense that created the disharmony and violated the relating has to be dealt with. To achieve this there is [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Part 3 | Reality Testing Offenses: Real and/or Imagined
An offense is something that is done that disrupts a relationship in such a way as to injure the offended, cause alienation that breaks the harmony that had been present, and puts the future of the relationship in jeopardy. You can think of many offenses that would fall into this category and you can imagine [...]
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