Tag Archives: forgiveness

Double Standards and Forgiveness

Have you ever gotten mad at your spouse for doing something so dumb you just can’t believe they did it? How could they be so oblivious, or absent-minded, or short-sighted? Sadly, I have to admit I have. There’s been times Wayne’s done things, goofed something up, and I’m like, “What the heck were you thinking? You had to have seen that coming?” Oh yeah, when he goofs up I assume the superior air because no way would I have made the same mistake. But, of course, I do. Maybe not the exact same mistake, but I make plenty o’mistakes nonetheless. … Continue reading →

Recipe For a Happy Marriage

Given the increasing rate of divorce what can we do to safeguard our marriages and make sure we don’t end up among the statistics? Here are some suggestions that we have found work in our marriage. Take all the ingredients below and out them together in a marriage. Hold on tight to what you have. Consider your marriage and the positives of your spouse and don’t forget to let him or her know how much you appreciate their special qualities. Overlook their faults. We all have them. Love is about accepting the other person for who they are faults and … Continue reading →

How To Deal With Guilt – Part 2

Yesterday we considered the first step in dealing with guilt, is the need to admit what we have done wrong. The glorious thing is when we confess our sins to God and truly repent of them, God removes them from His sight. ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,’ Psalm 103:12 The trouble is though God forgives us and removes our sins, we often struggle to forgive ourselves and remove them from our sight. Instead we keep going back to them as a child goes back and picks over … Continue reading →

My Husband’s Good Example

I don’t have a perfect marriage—in fact, I don’t know too many people who do. We have our ups and downs, that’s for sure. But there is one way in which I would say our marriage is perfect. My husband always forgives me. I’m a very emotional person. Life isn’t just something to be lived for me—it’s something I have to feel and experience. I tend to internalize much of what is going on and my nerves aren’t always the best. All of this is a very round-about way of saying, I have the tendency to throw the occasional fit. … Continue reading →

Forgive, Forgive, Forgive!

I wrote earlier today about how hanging on to hate can waste a lot of time. It dawned on me as I was finishing up, however, that the anecdote to hate is really forgiveness and while we often talk about the importance of forgiveness and letting go, few of us know how drastic forgiveness can be. It has taken me over forty years to learn that forgiveness is NOT giving up or letting others have control over me; it also does not mean that I am forgetting or allowing myself to make the same mistakes over and over again. What … Continue reading →

Taking Out the Trash

My children don’t seem to understand the difference between garbage and treasure. They hang on to every scrap of paper, yogurt container, soda bottle, tin foil bit, and inch of string. Every time I help them clean their rooms, we have deep discussions over what constitutes garbage and what really is worth keeping. I always throw out at least two garbage sacks of treasures, mostly for sanitary reasons but also for sanity reasons, and they are in tears because of it. I can’t wait until they are finally old enough to get what I mean when I say, “that’s garbage” … Continue reading →

The Way Out From Dangerous Paths

Yesterday we looked at the gravity with which God views astrology, sorcery, fortunetelling and such. Does that mean God can never bring a person out of such a background? No it does not! Like any other sin, God will forgive if the person truly repents and puts their trust in the Lord Jesus. The bible sites an example in Acts 16:16 where Paul, in the name of Jesus, rescued a slave girl from the practice of divination and fortunetelling, Acts 16:16-18 More recently it was the case in Australia, where God rescued Merryanne Sumner from new age practices that included … Continue reading →

Choosing Not to Take Offense

It is important to be careful when we choose to take offense at a comment. It is important to realize that it is something that we choose to do. There are comments that others will make at church that are hurtful, rude and uncalled for, but it is up to each one of us as to how we let that comment affect us. It is important to realize that we can choose to brush it aside or we can choose to dwell on it and let the comment affect us negatively for a long time. Personally I have had times … Continue reading →

How Much Forgiveness Should We Model?

As role models for our kids, we parents have tall orders—we have to set an example and model desirable character traits and behaviors, but we also have to allow for some flaws and humanity. One of the things I know that single parents can model for our kids is forgiveness—such an important life lesson. We might start to wonder, however, how MUCH forgiveness we should model and when our forgiveness lessons have crossed over into co-dependency? I think about forgiveness in two pieces—there are the little, daily constant infractions that we need to learn how to let go of and … Continue reading →

The Fine Art of the Apology

Learning to apologize well can be one of the hardest things we humans learn. I don’t know about you, but even though I thought I had it down pretty well, motherhood has added a whole new layer and lots of wrinkles to apologizing. Learning how to apologize to our kids, ask for forgiveness, and model forgiving and understanding behaviors as a parent can be tough. Now I know what is meant by the “art” of apology. Knowing when, how, and doing it with honesty and humbleness as a mom or dad is challenging! I know there are those parents who … Continue reading →