by irondork 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
1 John 4:8
On the topic of forgiveness, I remember hearing about a situation where a man molested his own son for many years. The victim could not forgive. Period. Regarding the damage done by years of shunning... those relationships are dead. You can't rebuild from a pile of ashes.
There are some works of the Devil that cannot be put back to right. The only solution available to God is to napalm the neighborhood, admit defeat, and go start a bug collection somewhere else.
A Christian has to forgive. Relationships and rebuilding are something else. No need to rebuild.
Who, w a single working brain cell would want to restart a relationship w a father that had molested him for yrs? The son who did would have to be as crazy as his father. That's my opinion, anyway.
S
Forgiveness is for the victim, as unforgiveness continues to hurt the victim. There is an easier way to handle it, than trying to forgive. What it is, is simply putting the person out of your mind, whenever the thoughts memories of him/her come into the mind.
Consider this, your mind is your property, your territory, to do as you will. Noone else has the right to go there. So, take control of it. Claim it. How? Suppression of thoughts doesn't work. Instead think another thought. This thought can be one of many things, whatever works for you. It can be a picture, a mental image of a place where you liked being. It can be counting your breaths or just focusing on them. It can be a mantra. Jesus. Whatever. Yah, it's called meditation.
Once you have cleared your mind of the unwanted thought, it will come back at a later time. You can tell to go away, in whatever words work for you ( for me, i find f***k off works good. But of course, if jesus does it for you, you can use the 'in the name of jesus' phrase, too), and then get back to the meditation that works for you.
S
Santanus: You can tell to go away, in whatever words work for you (for me, i find f***k off works good.)
Oh, that's just great! Thanks for the advise, Santanus. Now the roommate wants to have me checked for Turrets Syndrome.
LOL
In my opinion forgiveness is a state of mind... If you forgive someone for what he has done it does not mean you have to be in a nice relationship with that person anymore. For example: if you are married and someone commits adultery you may forgive the person the deed but still part ways... it seems to contradict but actually it doesn't. The divorce may come because of that deed... but you still can forgive the person that committed it.
I could not forgive some people in the past... but now that I follow Christ I have forgiven a lot of people in my own mind and from that moment I have a lot more peace. I am not in a relationship with these persons anymore... some even are not among us anymore... but I needed to forgive them in my mind in order to feel peace with myself as well as with Christ.
