Thoughts on Forgiveness...

we forgive others because God forgave us. but we have the curse of sin. so it is only through our faith in jesus that we have the power to forgive. our finite minds cannot fathom the depth of God's love for us. we understand only what we have experienced ourselves. i feel i have experienced God's forgiveness through other people. my past caused pain and hurt to those closest to me, and yet they always received me with open arms. never questioning. never ridiculing. never judging or preaching. just loving me.

how did they get to that point? that understanding of love. did they experience it themselves? i know that they were forever praying for me; lifting me up to God. total trust, man. total trust.

so by the example of forgiveness that they gave, i came to deeper understanding of just how deep the Father's love for us truly is. so many times over and over, the devil tricks us into thinking we can forgive on our own. that we have the capacity in our souls to forgive. to trust. to completely forget. on our own. with no help.

reality is the foot of the cross. that connection that we have through faith in what the cross represents is all we've got. do we dare say we need anyhting else? how do you tell students this and expect them to understand when the only way you have understanding is through God's graceful giving of Jesus? Ephesians 6 says "out of His glorious riches", His unlimited resources do we obtain the strength to forgive, to love. may we continue to experience God as to be "filled to the measure" of of His fullness.

Laynie and Daddy day...

Fridays are "Laynie and daddy" days at our house. There is nothing I look forward to more than hanging out with Laynie on Fridays. We go shopping for new tennis shoes, go to "Donalds" (her name for McD's), go visit Mee-Mee (my mom) and pet the horses, read books, play with toys and swing and play in the backyard.

I think God teaches me more about Himself and my part in His story on "Fridays" than any other time during the week. This week, I was thinking about how much Laynie trusts me for everything in her life. When we go somewhere, she trusts that I am not going to leave her there; when we go outside to play, she stays close because she knows I am going to protect her and show her a good time and teach her all about outside and all the wonderful things that are available to her. It makes me think of our faith and helps me understand how I am to be with my Father: totally dependent, joyful in all things, engaged in His Word, ever mindful of His beauty in creation.

Another thing I learned from my daughter today is the joy it brings to peoples lives when you take the time to look them in the eye, acknowledge they are alive and simply say hello. No matter where we go on Fridays, Laynie is always saying "hi" to people. We pass people going into Target, she says hello; walking down the aisles, "HI"; pull up to the cash register, "hi" and "bye". She is setting an example. Witht the faith of a child, there are no judgements, no insecurities, no qualms about what they will think about her. She just simply sees them as people like her who NEED to be talked to, recognized, LOVED.

I don't know...

I don't know why I am doing this. I have friends on this thing that write hilarious, thought provoking and sometimes useless things. My friends Johnny and Beth T have a blog and it needs to be published, it is that good. My hopes are that this can be another way to join in community with those people that I never get to see, but am connected to by the Cross; that it might be another "tool" to engage in the lives of people I don't know but love just because they are. Maybe we can do life together sometime...