Comments on: FORGIVE 70 x 7

By: nina

nina — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:20:13 +0000

Thanks for taking my story to a whole new level!!!

By: LittleChild

LittleChild — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:23:24 +0000

Sitting here listening to Andrew Brewis’ silky-smooth rendition of “Shepherd, show me how to go” as I read your story, Kristin. When I got to your words “And love for the womanhood and motherhood of my mom” these huge tears burst out of nowhere and poured down my cheeks. I felt the purity of God’s love for you and your mother — and the purity of your love for your mom. (Andrew was singing, “Thou wilt bind the stubborn will, Wound the callous breast, Make self-righteousness be still,….”)

In the next instant, I remembered my mom, and how she loved cooking and baking — and how delicious her culinary creations were! This overwhelming love for my mom came over me, and I felt her unconditional love for me — always apparent, even through my most wretched-acting moments. All former feelings of not forgiving myself for sometimes not expressing gentle love to her simply vanished.

So, you see, God sent to my waiting heart angels Kristin and Andrew and, never to be forgotten, that angelic and most humble scribe of “Feed My Sheep” –our beloved Mary Baker Eddy.

We do not know when that welcome guest, Christ’s spirit of forgiveness, will knock at our hearts. Be ready. Let her in. Give her a seat. She will accept it. She will make us new.

By: Clementine

Clementine — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:34:02 +0000

I love this story Kristin. yep, I’m trying to learn about doing things for others when it’s not convenient to me. It’s easy to do something for someone when it doesn’t cost anything, or take you much out of your way. But to do something for someone that is going to take time, (like in your story) is harder.

In the case of today forgiving someone 70 x 7 maybe when you don’t really want to, or you’re still holding on to the idea of who was in the right or not.

By: Pam Thompson

Pam Thompson — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:03:23 +0000

In thinking today about who in my life I can forgive, I realized that I’ve finally gotten to a place where I can forgive my older brother for being drunk the day after my father died 3 years ago, and causing me to drive an extra 3 hours to pick him up so he could sign the cremation papers with me. He still struggles with alcoholism, and I’ve realized that what he really needs is compassion, not condemnation or anger. I’ve realized that I can think of him lovingly, recognize his God-given nature, and leave him in God’s loving care, confident that regardless of the human picture, God has always been caring for him, and will continue to do so. I can honestly say that when my thoughts turn to him these days, I feel a deep sense of love and compassion.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:45:38 +0000

Well, isn’t this saying if we love someone we should prove it by action. Even if it is uncomfortable. Even if it means work, not just sitting and thinking lovely things. I’m thinking of Betty taking the baby in. Clearly she had to bathe, feed and clothe this baby along with everything else she had to do. It was active love. I am not an expert or a saint but a few days ago I felt put to the test on this. My mother wanted me to cook with her. I would have preferred to do something else – strongly preferred. We were making a recipe I’ve literally made 1,000 times yet my mom was pretty sure she knew more about cooking than I. Every moment that morning I met the resistance in my thought to being loving to my mom and overturned it. I wanted to hurry through this experience, but wrestled down the thought. I had to let patience in. And humility. And love for the womanhood and motherhood of my mom. When we had several pans full we were to sprinkle paprika on top. My mom wanted to use her special sifter. It poured, not sprinkled red paprika. My jaw set. And then I thought NO. This recipe has love in it. We scooped it out and saved the dish. I appreciated her graciousness in acknowledging that, oops, she didn’t know everything. I am still thinking about all that I learned from this experience. But I came across this thought in some notes from a friend this morning: “love always has an effect and the greatest effect is on the one who is loving.” Wow.

By: Clementine

Clementine — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:18:46 +0000

I’ve been trying to understand more this statement from Mary Baker Eddy today.

“The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of this asking? Do we pursue the old selfish-ness, satisfied with having prayed for something better, though we give no evidence of the sincerity of our requests by living consistently with our prayer.”

Science and Health 9:5-11

Any ideas anyone?

I wonder why sometime we re-play past ills done to us – and not live ‘consistently with our prayer’ for good and divine love. I’m working on this today.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:06:32 +0000

That is a great blog post, Michael! Thanks for sharing.

By: Ariana

Ariana — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 15:05:19 +0000

I came across this quote this morning from Carrie Fisher: ”Resentment is like drinking poison
and waiting for the other person to die.”

Freeing ourselves from resentment, hatred, and anger starts with forgiving. Its not easy. And sometimes we have to do it over and over again. But it allows us to separate ourselves from the victimization of past experiences. When we’re able to find freedom from them, it helps the other person move away from limiting labels and former behavior.