Forgiveness
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Three Questions That Lead to Self Forgiveness
After a decade of no contact, my sixteen year old daughter lived with her father for about six months. While I didn’t sleep a full night during that time, she seemed happy for the first three. After that, things began to go south rather quickly, and soon, she came home, to both of our relief. One day soon after, while we were at the grocery store, she mentioned that her whole life she had assumed that our divorce was her fault. She had never mentioned this to me, the idea that somehow my divorce from an abuser could be laid at her feet. But before I could begin my strenuous objections…
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Baby Heart Revival: A Transforming Miracle
The third grade daughter of a friend of mine had a hurting heart. Childhood depression isn’t always obvious, but this little girl was very introverted, always looked ragged, and was unaffectionate and disconnected from her mother. In fact, she would hiss at her if she tried to hug her. Childhood depression is hard to treat because eight is too young to experiment with medication, and generally, children aren’t self-aware enough to get a lot out of counseling. But children have one advantage over adults, and that is that they are still connected to their youngest selves. Adults can have a difficult time accessing their inner child, but an eight year…
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Why Offering Forgiveness is Terrifying
Grudges are somewhat satisfying. They are weapons we keep to remind us of our own superiority. We pull them up at convenient moments and use them like baseball bats to remind others and ourselves that while we may have done a, b, or c, at least we haven’t done x, y, or z. A good grudge can keep a game of one-upmanship going for years. But for those of us who would like to let bygones be bygones, or whose conscience reminds us that grudges are not a part of an abundant life in Christ, the nitty gritty of forgiveness is fraught with fears that we are not quite sure…
