{"id":12604,"date":"2013-06-19T01:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T05:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=12604"},"modified":"2013-06-18T21:12:02","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T01:12:02","slug":"girls-with-swords-the-sword-of-forgiveness-pg-200-205","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/19\/girls-with-swords-the-sword-of-forgiveness-pg-200-205\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls with Swords: Chapter 13 – “The Sword of Forgiveness” (pgs. 200-205)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Working as a hospice Bereavement Counselor, I have heard and seen stories like Lisa\u2019s numerous times. These stories do not cease to touch my heart. But I have seen stories of forgiveness have two different outcomes as well.<\/p>\n

There are two decisions that can be made in a situation such as the one depicted in this chapter.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong>\u00a0 Forgive\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>
\n <\/strong>2.<\/strong>\u00a0 Don\u2019t forgive<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As a Bereavement Counselor I have the opportunity to speak with some of the most interesting individuals I have ever met. Our patients have lived full lives, raised families, and created legacies. When working with our patients and their families all too often we are\u00a0faced with issues of unforgiveness—either on the side of the patient or on the side of their family. \u00a0I have seen unforgiveness lead to children not visiting their parent<\/span> as they die. I have seen unforgiveness breed words of hurt and hate; open wounds that were thought closed; and cause those wounds to go unhealed…opportunities gone.<\/p>\n

I have also seen forgiveness build bridges, heal hearts, and create new beginnings and new opportunities. Relationships restored and mended. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing! \u00a0It is a beautiful gift that we are given by God to have relationships with others after our flesh and the world has tried to corrupt them.<\/p>\n

Forgiveness is the remission of sins. <\/i><\/b><\/i>
\nFor it is by this that what has been lost,<\/i><\/b><\/i>
\nand was found, is saved from being lost again. <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2013Augustine (pg.205)<\/p>\n

Lisa questions how forgiveness impacted her father that night she went to go see him, she doesn\u2019t know exactly what happened, what he was thinking? But, she did know that God moved that night. Her willingness to forgive, her willingness to pick up that sword and walk forward with God by her side made a difference in her father\u2019s life. It made a difference in her life and it made a difference in the life of the social worker who cared for her dad. She didn\u2019t know what forgiving her father would do but she knew that it was something that needed to be done.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know what events will follow after we choose to say ‘yes<\/em>‘ to God, we don\u2019t know what will happen after we pick up that sword of forgiveness and carry it with us on our journey. We don\u2019t know what will happen after we forgive that mother, that father, the brother, sister, friend, whomever it may be. But what we do know is after we forgive, after we lay the issue at God\u2019s feet and allow love to fill the space where the unforgiveness lived, that God will take over, He will fulfill the promises He made regarding those relationships before they were even formed.<\/p>\n

Lisa\u2019s forgiveness of her father and his actions was a gift—a gift to her father and a gift to herself. Like Lisa said in this section \u201cGod is faithful.\u201d \u00a0We are to forgive, and He will handle the rest.<\/p>\n

\"Forgiveness.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

_______________<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s Pray:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Heavenly Father,<\/p>\n

Forgiveness is at times made to seem to sound so easy; but, Lord, You know that it can be hard. Lord, it takes faith and strength and trust in You. \u00a0Stories like Lisa\u2019s are beautiful and heartwarming. Please touch the hearts and lives of the women here who are dealing with the issue of forgiveness. \u00a0Please soften our hearts and give us the strength to lay the pain at Your feet, the strength to pick up our sword of forgiveness and walk forward with You by our side.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Working as a hospice Bereavement Counselor, I have heard and seen stories like Lisa\u2019s numerous times. These stories do not cease to touch my heart. But I have seen stories of forgiveness have two different outcomes as well. There are two decisions that can be made in a situation such as the one depicted in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":12606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[144,147,2083,2082,218,2087,2322,365,370,379,10,394,425,1985,436,2081,554,1986,620,723,879,1617,2085,2084,1075,1135],"class_list":["post-12604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-bible","tag-bible-study","tag-choice","tag-choose","tag-christianity","tag-destroy","tag-ephesians-213-16","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-fellowship","tag-forgiveness","tag-friendship","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-girls-with-swords","tag-god","tag-hero","tag-jesus","tag-lisa-bevere","tag-love","tag-online-bible-studies","tag-relationships","tag-satan","tag-steal","tag-target","tag-tonya-ellison","tag-womens-bible-studies","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Forgiveness.jpg.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3hi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12604"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12615,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12604\/revisions\/12615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}