Living Forgiving on the Heart Wide Open Christmas Journey

I’m convinced that God enjoys a good laugh as much as any of us, if not more. Last night was a fine example. After a long lovely day with family and friends, I plopped down in my recliner to jot y’all a note and post the next Heart Wide Open Devotional.

If you’ll remember, I wrote this journey for us this past July, and I’ve slept more than a few times since then. In other words, I’m literally walking this out with y’all. Each day’s topic comes as a surprise for me, too. Which is why I had to giggle when I saw that this one was on family friction! That’s right, meet Exhibit A. Yours truly had a chance to practice her own words today.

Right in the middle of a super wonderful day, one of my dearly loved family members and I had our own little fireworks display. It blew up and over in a flash but it still left the whole lot of us walking on eggshells for a little while there as everyone tried to shake the “icky” mood that was threatening to settle in and ruin the rest of our time together.

I’m happy to report that the icky didn’t win. Jesus prevailed. But, here’s the thing I need to say and you may need to hear. He prevailed because He was asked into the messy moment. Jesus will always prevail when He is invited into the fray.Initially, I thought I’d been wronged, but when I gave up my right to be upset and asked The God Who Is With Us to help, He immediately showed me how I had escalated the incident by my choice of words. Ouch.

Did I still feel a little wounded? Absolutely. By then, however, I knew what the Spirit was asking me to do. I wanted the Lord to forgive me quickly. He wanted me to take the grace He was giving me and pay it forward just as promptly.

When we hold onto the ugly, we not only sentence ourselves to reliving it over and over in our heads, we miss the marvelous mundane moments unfolding around us.

Living forgiving will restore the soul, (and rescue the holiday!)

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