Forgiveness and those closest to us

It's interesting to me that most of the resentment that people carry is with people they are the closet to.

If someone cuts you off on the highway, you forget about it and go on. You don't hold any resentment against that person because they are no longer a part of your life.

90% of all resentment occurs in the family.

There's the cute story of a married couple who had a quarrel and ended up giving each other the silent treatment. A week into their mute argument, the man realized he needed his wife's help. In order to catch a flight to Chicago for a business meeting, he had to get up at 5 a.m.

Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at 5 a.m."

The next morning the man woke up only to discover his wife was already out of bed, it was 9 a.m., and his flight had long since departed. He was about to find his wife and demand an answer for her failings when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed.

He read, "It's 5 a.m. Wake up."

Some people carry grudges for years.

We must forgive.

Sometimes we don't forgive because we think that if we do, we are conceding that the other person is right and we are wrong.

True forgiveness is not saying that they are right and you are wrong but only that you give up your right to retaliate. You see them as more than their sins.

I like what Stormie Omartian wrote, "Forgiveness doesn't make the other person right, it makes you free."

Forgive and be free today!