Forgiveness

One of my daughters struggles with forgiving her sister. It happened just tonight. As their play escalates from playful to mean, one of them inevitably gets either their feelings or body hurt. (Most of the time it's both.) A quick sorry is not enough. Me getting angry at her sister is not enough. She wants justice and she wants the punishment to be more severe than the crime. Her claim is that she always gets punished more severely and her "woest me" attitude can push me right over the edge of sane parenting and send me hurtling to the "exasperated, frustrated and I can't believe I just said that" kind of parenting.

My Sunday school lesson for last week was on how to give extreme forgiveness. And I got to admit that some of the examples made me wonder who would give out THAT KIND of forgiveness. Oh yeah; Jesus did. When I watch my daughter who struggles to forgive (and I hate to admit it but she gets it from me), I try to remind her of the times we have forgiven her for something she did wrong. And then I remind her that God forgives us for all the mistakes we make, big or little, so who are we not to forgive others or hold grudges?

As I was teaching this lesson it came time to give an example of when I, the teacher, struggled to forgive someone. It was in the lesson plan and I'd planned on skipping right over it using the excuse there wasn't enough time to include it. But the Holy Spirit led me to share the struggle I've had for the past six months with a dear friend. I get the joy of teaching one of my daughters every Sunday and as I scanned the room while teaching, I see her nodding as I said I was hurt by this friend and how it was so hard to forgive her. Wow. She nodded right along as I spoke and she knew exactly who I was talking about (without knowing a single detail of what the disagreement or hurt was about) and I was struck by how perceptive my child, really every child is about what's going on in their home.

This is a simple lesson, "Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:13 It's the simple lessons that I need to be reminded of again and again however.

Church

"Church isn’t where you meet. Church isn’t a building. Church is what you do. Church is who you are. Church is the human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s not go to Church, let’s be the Church.”


Bridget Willard

Being the church to me is being in relationships with other people. Connecting with them and letting them know that I care about them, their spiritual life, and their family. Without a relationship, you are just someone posting Bible verses on a stranger's blog.

Disaster Date #2

I know, I know. You can't believe I've ever had a bad date. Me either. I blame the boys. (It's easier than taking any responsibility.)

Date: Winter, 1991
Place: Some dance @ GRCHS
Date's Name: Let's call this one George


I am now a senior and still haven't learned my lesson NOT to date anyone outside of my class. I am dating a sophomore. (He was super cute as I remember. And mature for his age. Kinda sorta.) So there is some winter dance in the gym and my date decides to plan out where we will be eating dinner before we head over to the dance. (1st mistake.) Did I mention I was a senior? And all of my friends were going downtown to swanky restaurants and that part of the fun is telling everyone where you went to eat?

We went to Fuddruckers. (2nd mistake.) I kid you not. George told me he loved their hamburgers. I offered to help pay if that would help change the dinner destination. We waited in line for our food, picked it up at the counter, and sat down. Across the restaurant I saw my religion teacher. Dear Lord, shoot me now.

George was dressed quite nicely. He had on a wool sweater and khaki pants. About half way through the dance his neck looked all red and prickly and I asked him why he didn't where an undershirt. (3rd mistake.) Hello George, it's wool!

All in all, it was fun dance. I lied and told my friends we went to Cheddar's and I think George's skin recovered fairly quickly. Our break up was imminent.