Can you forgive?

Matthew West's new song "Forgiveness" doesn't just speak to me, it's yelling at me.  It's not easy to forgive someone especially if you have been hurt deeply.  It's a choice we make and sometimes it feels easier to sit and stew in your anger then actually bring yourself to let go and forgive the person.

What I have learned is that it takes a lot of work and energy to be mad at someone.  It can literally age a person before your eyes as they are being eaten up inside with the pain.  Everyone has to come to a time of forgiveness on their own or it's not genuine.

So if this is you, and you need to forgive someone, write down all your hurt, all the emotions you feel from the hurt and then pray it out.  Pray out every emotion, say the words and ask God to release you.  It may be short and sweet or you may be praying for an hour as you get it all out, but do it, get it ALL out.  One of the lines in West's song is "So, let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace, the prisoner that it really frees is you".  Once we choose to set ourselves free from this pain, the weight, the hurt is taken off our shoulders and you can live again.  God forgives us with just one prayer, shouldn't we extend that same grace to those who have done wrong to us.

Matthew 6:12

Good News Translation (GNT)

¹² Forgive us the wrongs we have done,
    as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.

The song from Matthew West helped me open my heart to forgive and it's amazing what God can do when we open our heart and allow him to do a work in our life.  Forgiveness is the first step, it's what we do next that can change everything.  Here is the story behind the song "Forgiveness"

It's been awhile......

Well I'm back.  I kind of ignored my blog while I was home on maternity leave.  I was immersed in babyland and I didn't want every post to be about diapers and spit-up.  The year went crazy fast as everyone told me it would.  When you start you think a year is so far away, then 6 months go by and you think, ok I still have another 6 months, then before you know it you are counting down weeks then days and then you're back to work.

The transition back was very easy, it felt like I never really left, or at most was just on vacation.  Mia started daycare and has done well with her new schedule too, she loves playing with other kids and she is pretty exhausted by the time I get her home so I know she must be having fun!