Forgiveness

Mrs has been very helpful to me with this.

Her advice to me has been to see those who hurt her at our old church as Christ saw those who persecuted him, and said ‘Father, forgive the, for they know not what the do’

This work on two levels:

Firstly, it gives me her permission to forgive. She was the one hurt, and I could not insult her by smiling at those who hurt her while she was still in pain. But now I have her permission to forgive.

Secondly, it gives me a mechanism to forgive those who hurt her (and me by association) even though they have not shown any remorse or acknowledgment that they did her serious harm.

Even so it is hard to forgive. But the evolving context helps to see how those events, bad though they were, have been woven into the tapestry of God’s plan. (see following post.) Hence forgiveness is beginning to happen.