UNFORGIVENESS






Unforgiveness doesn't become you!  Words spoken sotto voce.  I look around, see no one; realize I had heard the words in my spirit.  Neither surprising nor expected; yet, I know Spirit's gentle nuance.  I hesitated  a half step before continuing to greet a cherished friend with "Good Sunday morning, my Dear."  I shared what I had heard, and how He had spoken without condemnation or condescension.  

 If anything, sadness tinged His assessment.  I confessed to her what He had whispered,  then offered a blow-by-blow account of what I knew essentially had always been a weak and irresponsible reason for feeling offense.  When she concurred, peace enveloped us for the scant few minutes we sat together before Worship service began.

 How often had I failed to hear His still, small voice in the midst of the soap opera my life easily could devolve into? How often had I felt it more important to be right than to respond from a place of love?  It's amazing how the advice we have for others, often with our self righteousness intact, actually has our name on it.  

 To illustrate, I had asked one of my favorite nieces to join me in reading First Corinthians 13: 1-13, the Love chapter, aloud for sixty days.  It would, I firmly believed, help her learn from the Word a true definition of Love.  Alright! We began reading it early each morning while I was still vacationing in Chicago, where she lives.  I continued when I returned home.

As a reminder, I would text the Scripture after I had read it each morning, encased in emojis, (of which I'm inordinately fond).  Well, wouldn't you know, Spirit revealed that the Scripture was for me first! Hmm. Well! Indeed,  Our Father works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.  He performs His wonders in me every day I read the verse or any Scripture aloud! 

 In truth,  He performs His mighty works, whether or not Courtney (named for my daughter who lives in Heaven), and I recite it. What  a Mighty God we serve! The hymnist penned, "What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Ev'rything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Ev'ry-thing to God in prayer!"

 As I always ask especially when I remember, please feel free to share your feelings, questions, or thoughts.  I welcome them!

   

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