The other day a friend posted something on her Facebook feed that really gave me pause. I quickly took a screenshot of it knowing that I wanted to return to it later.
The photo appears to be from Madison Avenue Baptist Church, and states the following:
“The most influential person in your life is the one you refuse to forgive.”
Wow! This hit me like a ton of bricks. How often have I ruminated over some past event and person refusing to let it go? Always returning to that same point either blaming or questioning how things might have turned out differently if only I had…
Making the conscious choice to forgive, and to move forward is not always easy. Sometimes holding on to the past is a convenient excuse not to move forward.
Refusing to let go means that you won’t have to take the responsibility of the choices you made in the past, and the choices that will arise in the future.
I realized that if I’m harboring any unforgiveness it is time to let it go.
In the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, Jesus instructs us to forgive not up to seven times, but “ up to seventy times seven.”
Why would he be so insistent on the need to forgive? Because he knew that
“Unforgiveness will produce bitterness.”
(The Master’s University)
Who is that influential person you need to forgive?
