Power of a Praying Woman 10/17/06 9:02 AM Page 47
Lord, Help Me…
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don’t feel comfortable around it. When we choose to forgive, not only do we bene?t, but so do the people around us.
Family First
It’s very easy to have unforgiveness toward family members because they are with us the most, know us the best, and can hurt us the deepest. But for those very same reasons, unforgiveness toward one of them will bring the greatest devastation to our lives. That’s why forgiveness must start at home. First of all, it is very important to make sure you have forgiven your parents. The Bible is crystal clear about this issue. The ?fth of the Ten Commandments says, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). If you don’t honor them it will shorten your life. And you can’t fully honor them if you haven’t forgiven them. When I made the decision to forgive my mother, I did it because I wanted to obey God and move into all He had for me. It must have worked because look how old I am. But forgiving her once did not mean that I never had to worry about it again. There were layers and layers of unforgiveness that had built up in me over the years, and I found I had to forgive her every time one of them surfaced. Actually, I had to forgive her every time I saw her because she only became worse as the years went on. Just because we confess our unforgiveness toward someone one day doesn’t mean we won’t have unforgiveness in us the next. That’s why forgiveness is a choice we must make every day. We choose to forgive whether we feel like it or not. It’s a decision, not a feeling. If we wait for good feelings, we could end up waiting a lifetime. If we have