Forgiveness

Reason 7: Forgiving

Like when I say I would get up early to do a blog post each day and only a week has gone by and I am already 2 posts behind...or that one time when he told us not to play ball in the house and then we put a hole in the wall from swinging the bat...or that other time we were told to stop jumping off the back deck and 30 min later I ended up with a broken wrist from not obeying...I could sit here all day telling yall stories, big and small, of the times I have given my dad the opportunity to live out that great command of forgiving that Jesus teaches us about. But seriously, who wants to read all that.
Living 61 years, having 4 kids, and being married for over 30 years will give you plenty of opportunities to choose to forgive and move on or choose to hold back forgiveness, stay mad, seek justice or revenge...
My dad has learned to forgive and chooses to do so on a regular basis. A healthy marriage of so many years and great relationships with all 4 of us kids is pretty good proof.

still loving each other after so many years

one big happy family

Now that doesn't mean he just forgot about whatever we did and we never had any consequences...we had plenty of those. But what he didn't allow to happen was the gap that gets made in a relationship when forgiveness doesn't occur. There were times of getting mad, angry and upset from both sides, but at the end of the day, the relationships were still intact. That can only happen through forgiveness.
Because of his example and the way things were modeled growing up, I think I have a better understanding of the forgiveness God the Father gives as well as example after example of how and why forgiveness works. I can forgive time after time after time now because of having that example in the home to see and be taught by on a  daily basis. Jesus commanded it, my parents lived it out, and now I am able to be that example to others.

I love you Dad for your forgiveness, the relationships we have because of it, and just for your overall example of how to do it in these days and times.