HOPE & LIGHT

Some of you know I have been writing a book, a memoir about an automobile accident we had in 1975 that took the life of our first-born child, Teresa, and left me severely handicapped and later resulted in the long list of chronic illnesses I’ve been diagnosed with.

One of the chapters I’ve been working on has to do with forgiveness. My husband Mitch and I were able to forgive the man who hit us in a head-on collision, caused by him dropping a lit cigarette and leaning over to pick it up. Before I left the hospital, Mitch and I went to the lady who was in the pickup truck and hit us and her father-in-law, who was the driver, was in the room, and we forgave him for the accident.

What was hard was releasing two spiritual leaders who had spoken painful words to us, one the week before the accident, the second later to me about my “lack of faith for healing.” These were much more difficult to forgive, but over the time I’ve been working on this book I’ve come to the place of releasing any bitterness I had against them and forgiving them.

As I was reading my new Bible I got for Christmas, Colossians 3:13 stood out to me. The first sentence in this New Living Translation (one I’m using in my writing) really stood out to me. We are to “make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.” Such a clear way of explaining in current language what is required to forgive someone who offends us! It helped me to completely release the guest speaker at our church after the accident who spoke some hurtful words to me about my “lack of faith for healing.”

I know that many of you have also struggled to forgive words similar to the ones I heard from this guest speaker a couple years after the accident that forever changed our lives. I ask you to take some time today to be sure there’s no bitterness or unforgiveness in your heart caused by words that wounded you. Take time today to give this hurt to the Lord, and release you from any residue bitterness and unforgiveness.