No Tassel Turned

I think sometimes we can make the assumption that those who teach God's principles must be fairly accomplished in the spiritual realm. No one is ever perfect, but surely in order to get to the point where you are qualified to teach you more-or-less have your stuff together. Well, I hate to burst your bubble...we don't!!

I am teaching a class on forgiveness tomorrow. I have taught this session twice before and I have heard this topic taught countless times. As I sat down tonight to go over my notes and get ready I KNEW I needed to deal with some things before I could. So, in an attempt to do my best to take of my own issues of unforgiveness before I try and point others in the way they should go, I wrote down the names of those I felt I had at least a thread of unforgiveness woven thru whatever thoughts I may think toward them. Guess what?

I had to write down 5 names!!!!

Oh yeah, I really have it together alright!! One of the names I even shed some tears over because, while I want to feel forgiving toward them, I decided the act of acknowledging my desire to forgive them out of obedience to the Father might eventually lead to feeling it...because I sure don't feel it now!!

So there you have it! No tassel has been turned here yet! I am proof that you can teach on a topic and still struggle with it yourself! The Lord knows my heart, though, and He knows I truly desire to have a clean slate because it is not so much about my relationship with others as it is all about my relationship with Him!!!

Assuredly there is but one way in which to achieve what is not merely difficult but utterly against human nature: to love those who hate us, to repay their evil deeds with benefits, to return blessings for reproaches. It is that we remember not to consider men's evil intention but to look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.

John Calvin (1509 - 1564)

"It is critical to remember that we are most like Jesus not through our attempts to be perfect, but through our choices to forgive as we have been freely forgiven!" Jackie Kendall in her book Free Yourself to Love.