Forgiveness...

I've mentioned before that I am seeing a Christian counselor.  I see her once a week (typically on Thursdays) for an hour, sometimes we go a little over an hour...and honestly, I feel that she is another angel that God has placed in my path.  She has made all the difference in my healing...the craziness that swirls in my head.  Her spiritual wisdom is comforting, and it creates a thirst inside of me for more.

For privacy purposes (obviously I'm not worried about my privacy, but for the privacy of my counselor) I will refer to my Christian counselor as "Dr. Phil My Soul With Jesus" (although my counselor is a woman, that's the most clever name I could come up with).

Today "Dr. Phil My Soul With Jesus" and I discussed forgiveness.  Forgiveness is something that I struggle with...in fact, I think forgiveness is something everyone struggles with, would you agree?  Within our conversation, I discovered that forgiveness (or the lack thereof) is the source of many of my sorrows, my stress, my struggles...

Did you know that unforgiveness is a sin?  Here is an example...

I have an individual in my life, a family member, that I have held towards resentment, anger, frustration, sadness...all sorts of ill will  for most of my life.  I have placed blame for many of my mistakes on this particular individual, and at the same time, I have allowed this individual the freedom to rob me of my confidence, to trample on my feelings, to disregard my very existence (do you hear the anger and sadness?)...

For twenty-nine years I have judged this individuals sins against me (and by the way, it's not about me...not just me, anyway), but I never realized that I was living in sin by not forgiving, and my sin of unforgiveness was causing the heaviness of sadness, resentment, anger, frustration...all of it.  I was crippling myself by not forgiving this individual...

Wow.

"Dr. Phil My Soul With Jesus" and I focused on forgiveness...and how the Christian way of life is forgiveness, which makes sense, right?  Because forgiveness is most like Jesus.

But forgiveness is so difficult for us...it is against our nature.  It is natural to seek vindication when we feel wronged....right?  But...unforgiveness causes mental, emotional, and physical harm...(it's like a light has just been flipped on....mental harm, emotional harm, physical harm).

And so together, "Dr. Phil My Soul With Jesus" and I will focus on forgiveness.  And I will shed my own sin of unforgiveness by forgiving...

And I will have peace.

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I want to leave you with something someone recently emailed to me...this simple sentence sums it all up...

She writes:

"Because He has forgiven me, I can forgive you."

Profound.