Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: RESOLUTION (01/07/16)
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TITLE: The Choice To Forgive | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gloria Pierre Dean
01/13/16 -
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Life had dealt her some severe blows.
She and Fitz had three children. She was fifteen and pregnant when they got married.
Now the children were all grown. They loved their father and found it impossible to take sides.
He was generous financially but he was an alcoholic.
Katrina lived alone in her aunty May’s cottage at a low rent.
From the back window of the cottage she could see her three bedroomed marital home in the valley below.
In that home was her unfaithful spouse and his current mistress.
The law of the land did not allow her to evict him.
“In order for me to leave” he said to her “you will have to sell the land and house and give me my share so I can start afresh with the love of my life”.
Katrina was unhappy but there were pluses in her life.
She worked hard at refurbishing ‘the old house’ that Grandpa had left her.Her plan was to rent it so she could have an income.
During their married life Fitz had been a good provider but his infidelities had wrecked her heart. In truth and in fact she found it hard to be joyful about anything.
Humiliation was her companion. In this small community there were no secrets. All the villagers knew their life story. They both grew up here. Villagers knew her as a passionate woman of fervent faith in God. She was known for her generosity. She helped her neighbours as much as she could and had recently fostered local abandoned children.
The constant battle in her soul was how to forgive Fitz.
The Word of God said we should ‘“forgive our enemies”. Fitz was her enemy!
He needed to submit his life to God but he refused to do so.
Instead he had humiliated and abandoned her by his unfaithfulness.
The Word of God said “pray for your enemies”.Jesus himself taught us to ”pray for those who mistreat you”.[ Luke 6:28b] and He said “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you”. [Matthew 6:14]. So daily she worked at forgiveness. Her daily prayer was “Help me Lord..I forgive him”.
“Was it a losing battle”? she often wondered . Her resolve grew out of years of pain but she knew that somehow God would bring good out of it. The book of Romans states that
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”.[8:28]
This new year she would be sixty years old.
She was tired of being unhappy.
She was tired of including negative words about Fitz in conversations, tired of being an angry mother to her children because they loved their father, tired of being told she was obsessed by him and ready to be at peace.
As she lay on her bed talking to God this morning she prayed that this year would be different.
“Please Father” she said “May Your Kingdom come and Your will be done in me and all that concerns my life past, present and future.
In Jesus Name.Amen”.
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When Jesus was being crucified one of the remarks recorded that he said was "Father, forgive them for the know not what they do." I feel/think that Jesus was able to suffer his pain easier because in this statement he also forgave them. When we forgive others, the pain they inflicted is easier to be endure.
Stayed in tune with God's will for us to live by.
Well done.
God bless~