Grudges

Children don't usually hold grudges. They will react to an unpleasant situation and then let it go. Adults, however, have a tendency to hang onto their hurts. When people behave badly toward us or others, we think they owe a debt for their wrongdoings. We believe they are obligated to the one hurt by their poor behavior, and it seems only fair to us to expect restitution of some kind. Unless that perceived restitution occurs, we tend to withhold forgiveness.

But, as Christians, we are called to a different way of thinking and acting ... one that is consistent with what we know of God's character. He is a merciful Father who wants His children to show mercy to others (Luke 6:36). His Son's life on earth demonstrated how we are to live our lives. As Jesus hung on the cross, He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). God expects us to forgive just as Jesus did, regardless of circumstances.

We find this command difficult to carry out until we start to grasp the enormity of Christ's work on our behalf. What took place at the cross made us recipients of a mercy so great that it defies imagination. The Savior took on all our ungodly, rebellious acts upon Himself and died in our place. He experienced the outpouring of God's wrath so we might be forgiven and reconciled to the Father. We deserved condemnation but received God's mercy instead. As new creations indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we have the power to truly let go of the wrongs done to us and extend mercy to others as it has been given to us.

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Is it my imagination or are my blogs getting shorter? Yesterday and today just seemed to be really short. When I get to the change I have envisioned for this blog, I may not write every day. I plan for it to be less like a daily lesson, and more like a simple conversation about what I believe and why I believe it. I didn't write at all yesterday afternoon. I just wasn't in the mood. That's the thing about the change; it will be much more free-flowing or at least that will be what I'm shooting for. The format I'm thinking of may not work, but it's worth a try before I do something so drastic as discontinuing my blog altogether. I'm just bored with it the way it is and I think some changes are in order. My blog will continue from one day to the next as I solidify my beliefs and put them into writing. I'm ready to move on to something else for a change. But there will be days, I imagine, when I won't feel like writing and on those days I probably won't write so you'll need to continue to check my blogspot to see if I have anything new posted.

We have VERY light rain this morning and have only about .05 in the rain gauge from last night so it's just going to be a dreary day I guess. I need to go out and run some errands after while and I'll swing by the Post Office as long as I'm out. Our PG&E bill should be coming any day now. Usually it comes around the 5th to the 8th but it did come on the 10th one month so chances are it will be in today's mail. Not really any more news to write about so I think I'll finish up here and go get dressed and get my day off to some kind of a start. These long slow mornings feel good, but they wreak havoc with schedules. I have a Deacon's meeting tonight at 6:00 and then I will be finished with this week's meetings. Of course, I'll be pretty much finished with this week, too!! LOL. Well, I'm off to my chores. Until tomorrow...