Forgiveness was just a term to me growing up, something that God commands us to do and it wasn’t until my college years that I understood it was more than that. I didn’t even realize that I had been holding huge grudges for years against friends and family and how much of a negative impact those grudges had on my mental well-being!
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Now when I think about forgiveness, I think first of where forgiveness comes from and how that affects me. God sets the greatest example of forgiveness that we’ll ever see, even greater than the awesome stories of broken families who had to forgive a dad who was out of the picture for a long time or a brother forgiving a woman who killed his sibling. As a Christian who strives each day (and fails…a lot) to look and live more like Christ, how can I ignore His command after knowing that God forgives me for every mistake I make, every evil thing I do?
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Living a lifestyle of forgiveness for me now looks like not holding onto things and forgiving others even if I don’t get an apology. I’ve noticed a huge shift in my relationships since realizing that I should incorporate forgiveness in my lifestyle and not just think of it when I get convicted. Not only does it please God for us to forgive but it’s also really freeing to forgive someone and release the weight that you’d been carrying
Maurine
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