Forgiveness: The Bottom Line With Everybody
We know the condition of our own forgiveness before God is our willingness in turn to forgive those who have injured us. “Forgive us our trespasses, Lord, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Forgiveness is the bottom line for all in this world: spouse, non-spouse; family member, non-family member; friend or foe – - because nobody, but nobody, meets our expectations completely. In other words, no virtuous act is so virtuous to other people as it is to ourselves. People just do not know how virtuous we are; that we worked our fingers to the bone. They don’t see our efforts; there is no recognition, no affirmation, no gratitude and, what is my natural reaction to all of this? “I hope they break a leg and die and go to hell in that order!” But we know as Christians we are not blessed if we respond in that way. I must allow myself to be raised into the realm of faith and the supernatural, into the realm of prayer. If I try to live my life only on the level of nature, at the natural level, it is not long before I descend into the un-natural.
So, I pray:
I forgive my mother and father for not being perfect, for neglecting me because of their own problems, for not loving me enough.
I forgive my brothers and sisters for all the competition, for not helping when I needed it, for not loving me enough.
I forgive my spouse for unreal expectations, for taking me for granted, for not loving me enough.
I forgive my son and daughter for not being exactly like me, for learning the hard way, for not loving me enough.
I forgive myself for my selfishness, for the stupid things I did in the past, for not loving me enough.
I forgive God for not making me perfect, for not making everyone just like me, for giving me a free will which I often abuse.
I forgive anyone who may have physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially, financially, or sexually hurt me. I ask God to forgive me as much as I forgive others; and I promise God to try to live faithfully and to create a community of loving people.
Perhaps the only motivation that can move you and me to forgive is the words Jesus our God spoke through that exquisite pain of His crucifixion: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
this came from one of my Catholic email groups and I wanted to post it as it really was something I needed to hear today.
I have friends of all different political view points. Progressives, Liberals, Democrats, Republicans, Conservatives and even White Nationalists. People of all faiths too are my friends. I try to listen to all sides with an open mind before making up my mind. The truth has no agenda, yet, in today’s world many people believe that truth is only what fits in with their agenda and don’t want to consider that the truth might also be on the side of the person who has a different political view and agenda too. Do we really value truth or do we pick and choose our truth that we believe? To many people I am afraid choose the latter of picking and choosing their truth that they believe.
Our country is in serious trouble because of our overspending and our elected officals in government do not seem willing to deal with our problems in an honest way, but demigod the issue and not telling the American people the truth of our true condition. The people spoke up in 2010 and sent a new crop of people to deal with this problem in a real way and not just pretend dealing with it to look good, but to really deal with the problem. Rep. Ryan is trying to be serious in finding a budget that is going to start dealing with the budget defict in a real manner. We are all going to have to make sacrifices and that includes Obama and the Congress. To many times they ask us the people to make sacrifices while they make none. That must change.
People of all political views in this nation are getting angry that our government LIES TO US and WON’T GET SERIOUS ABOUT FINDING A WAY TO LIVE WITHIN OUR MEANS. People in both Political Parties are going to have to clean up the corruption in their parties. Who for their own personal greed serve the high payed lobyists and not the people.
We have lost our moral compass as a country. If a person has no honor they have nothing in life. If a person lies he is not honorable. Instead of the people firing the politicians who LIE TO US and vote them out of office the very next election we keep voting them in office time and time again. If we continue to send the people who lie to us back to office then how can we be surprised that our conditiion as a country is in the horrid shape it is in.
People of both parties and of all political views must start to value character and honor in our elected officals. We should reward those who HAVE THE MORAL COURAGE TO TELL US THE TRUTH. We must not continue on the same path of sending back to office those who look in the camera and LIE TO US WITH A SMILE ON THEIR FACE.
Well, I am willing to listen and work with anyone who has a honest love for this nation. I am willing to work with any American on seeking a solution to our problems.
Well, need to take Benji for a walk now and start to think about fixing my hamburgers.
Chrisy
