Mental Health

01 Thursday Mar 2012

In the book Managing Conflict Through Communication by Ruth Abigail and Dudley Cahn, the authors point out that forgiveness is good for mental health and failure to forgive can have long lasting negative effects on mental health. That’s no great surprise to me but a good reminder of how holding on to grudges and anger from hurts would only keep me captive to that person. When I truly forgive them, let it go and move on, I am no longer captive to them because that event doesn’t rule in my heart, my head and my life. That’s not to say I won’t remember and it’s not to say I want avoid having to deal with someone who has repeatedly or maliciously tried to hurt me but I won’t let those past grievances control my heart and my mind and my health.var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

Forgiveness is powerful medicine. The world would be a better place if more people took a big dose of it.

Grace and peace.

Even More Fruitcakes!

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by Seeking Peace in forgiveness, Las Vegas

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Yes, I’m back in Las Vegas and you see the craziest things. Tonight it was a lady who was in trouble with MGM hotel security and it got a little wild with lots of hitting, cussing, screaming and handcuffs. Then there are the drunks who are coming in when I’m headed out for a meeting at 6:45 in the morning. Ouch. Then there’s all the money fed into slot machines, spent on blackjack, craps, roulette and a number of other games of chance and the alcohol…oh, how the alcohol flows. It’s a wild and bizarre place.var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

Las Vegas may or may not have anything to do with what’s on my mind. Forgiveness.

My classes are getting better and better and I’ve read some things that really resonate with me in the past week. I’ll have more on those to post in the next few days but suffice it to say that I’m thinking about forgiveness all over again. How, when, why? Forgive others and forgive myself? What does pure forgiveness look like? All good questions and all with good answers.

To make it easy for myself, I fall back to a question. How do I want God to forgive me and what does that look like?

Grace and peace.

When Is It Time To Move On?

26 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in forgiveness, freedom

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My blogging friends are giving up the business. It makes me wonder when this blog will have run it’s course. I’ve considered shutting it down a couple of times – mainly because I feel like I’m saying the same things over and over. Other times, I feel like new points are being revealed to me and I want to record them to look back on at some point. var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

Forgiveness is back on my mind and surrender is on my mind. A good friend shared a quote with me the other day that has me contemplating how well (or how not so well) I forgive. Lewis Smedes is attributed with saying, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” Gandhi said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” I don’t want to be a prisoner but I do want to be one of the strong. It s something I still need to work on.

Forgiveness is the power of the cross, it’s the final words before death to ourselves and new life. Jesus exemplified this in his words, “Father, forgive them for the don’t know what they are doing.” With that, Jesus was dead and so was the power of darkness over light, the power of bitterness over freedom, the power of hatred over love.” With complete forgiveness comes things that cannot exist without it, it brings life with joy and hope. I need to forgive better. I need, I want to forgive as the Lord forgave me (Colossians 3) because I believe it will lead to loving others like the Lord loves, seeing others as the Lord sees, having compassion as the Lord is compassionate, offering hope that the Lord offers me. Today, I’m praying that I will have the strength and wisdom to forgive completely and freely.

Grace and peace to you.