Pardon my indiscretion

Hello.

Have you ever been in trouble? Have you ever wronged someone, whether it be your spouse, your boss, your parents, maybe a close personal friend? Maybe you didn’t even know that you wronged them. But nonetheless, they were angry with you over something you supposedly did. Have you ever asked forgiveness from that person? What was the response? Were you forgiven or not?

This is the subject we will talk about today. It is my opinion that there is far too much un-forgiveness in our society, today. When someone wrongs us we immediately want revenge, instead of resolution. In my experience, revenge has never brought about closure to any difficult circumstance. I have found, in fact, that if I have the attitude of forgiveness, I can face that person or persons who wronged me with a “guilt-free” conscience. Far too many times when we do not forgive those who hurt us, we find ourselves angry, depressed, or even bitter.

And we do not know why. The reason for this is that if we believe what the bible says (we were “created in God’s image”) we can begin to understand that we were not created to be angry, bitter, spiteful, or vengeful people. We, like God, were created with God’s love as the engine that should drive what we do, say or feel. We have our best example of forgiveness in Jesus Christ Himself. In the most horrible circumstances, the Savior of the world was crucified for speaking the truth. He looked down on the people who were laughing, shouting, spitting, and dividing up His possessions, and said, “Father forgive them.” Jesus set the tone for all mankind for how we are to behave toward one another.

Remember forgiveness does not mean that we should let people just walk all over us. We are not to let someone who wronged us keep on wronging us. We are to forgive them of their trespass and move on.

In closing, think about this: if we want to be forgiven, we first must be willing to forgive. The bible tells it something like this: if we forgive, we will be forgiven by God; if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven by God.

What do you want when you have committed an offense? Someone’s forgiveness or revenge? As for me, I want forgiveness!