Forgiveness

Today I am thinking about forgiveness.

What is it?
What does it mean?
What does it mean on a practical level?
What does it mean for me today?
How do I relate when I haven't forgiven?
How do I relate when I have?
Do I have to forgive?
If I forgive, does that mean I also forget?

As I work through this today, I realize that so many of the choices I make today about what forgiveness means will impact my children. And so it makes it even more important that I get this right. It impacts generations!

I parked at desiringGod.org this morning for my quiet time, getting some good ol'fashioned teaching and preaching about forgiveness by John Piper.

As you can imagine, there were many good things to read.

I grabbed a hold of this:
"You can actually look someone in the face and say: 'I forgive you, but I don't trust you.' But O how crucial is the heart here. What would make that an unforgiving thing to say is if you were thinking this: 'What's more, I don't care about ever trusting you again; and I won't accept any of your efforts to try to establish trust again; in fact, I hope nobody ever trusts you again, and I don't care if your life is totally ruined.' That is not a forgiving spirit. And our souls would be in danger."

Oh how my heart needs to be taught, again and again, to forgive.