Learning the Art of Forgiveness

                                My Marriage Advice

  Marriage is an adventure in learning about each other.

I think of my own like an amusement park ride: Bumper Cars.

It always has one of the longest lines, yet people are willing to stand in line for it.  While your waiting, it's always exciting. I think about who will out run everybody else, or how many people we can bump into, and the ones who get stuck in some corner.  Then the ride starts and everybody is screaming- in fun and laughing that is till somebody bumps you really hard and your head whacks the bar or your neck does this whiplash thing, then the fun ends for you.

It's a lot like marriage.  Your so excited to be getting into to it, and the first year is full of laughter and life seems fine till one day "BUMP" you get hit with something, (finances, screaming children- not in fun, or sickness), and marriage isn't so much fun anymore.  That's when you need to remember this very important advice:

   let it go!  

 Yes, because when things in life give you a good o'l bump, 

you'll end out doing or saying things that you shouldn't.

Solomon 2:15 says “Catch us the foxes, The little foxes that spoil the vines, For our vines have tender grapes.”

It's all those little things, that if you do not allow them to go, they will pill up and cause the vineyard of your love to spoil, and eventually die.

Not only do we need to let it go; we also need to forgive.

Matthew 18: 21,22  “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Do not wait for the your other half to say they are sorry, forgive them even when they don't. This will not be easy especially if your other half doesn't realized what they have done. Whatever you do, do not make the mistake of the o'l “eye for eye” because that will only lead to bitterness. Instead we need to extend mercy, even when they do not deserve it. Since that is what the Lord did for us.

 

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

We need to follow the Lord's example in forgiveness which He extended to those who did not deserve it. An example of this

can be found in Luke 7  when Jesus was invited to one of the Pharisees home, a prostitute came and anointed His feet with oil and washed His feet with her tears.

   Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 

 

When Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven” He did not wait

for another day to bring them up to her. He let it go and so must we. How far do we let them go? As far as the East is from the West, that's how far. 

 

Did you catch this verse: “for she loved much” Why?

Because much was forgiven. When you forgive one another

seventy times seven, (in other words; always), then I believe you will end out loving each other very much. 

 

Also the opposite is true when you forgive little;You love little.

So, How can you forgive? You can do all things through the messiah who strengthens us.

Through Jesus we can let go and forgive and have our

"Happily Ever After”.