"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." This is what Isaiah 23:45 says. I find such comfort in the bible verses that talk about how God forgives us. He forgives us and remembers our sins NO MORE. Isn't that awesome!? Too bad we have a hard time doing the same with ourselves. Not only do we have a tendancy to not be able to forget the wrong things in our past but we seem to dwell on them.
We are humans and as humans we are not perfect and never will be and this life that we are living is a learning experience and with any learning experience there are mistakes that are made and sometimes those mistakes are HUGE. Those are the ones we usually have a hard time forgetting about.
I read a book called Wisdom for the Way and it talked about how our past is like an art gallery and walking down those corridors of our memory is like walking through an art gallery. On the walls are all of yesterday's pictures: our joys, our triumphs, our heartaches and difficulties. When we think back we are always staring at these pieces of art. Of course the good pieces we look at give us joy and the ugly pieces we look at give us guilt, sorrow, and even sometimes anger. When we ask God to forgive us he does and no longer see's those ugly pictures in our art gallery. He only see's the pretty ones. However we have a habit of hanging on to those art pieces. In fact sometimes we even make those ugly pictures the focal point in our gallery by framing that piece of art and making it so front and center that when we walk into our gallery, we can no longer see the pretty pictures. I have always loved that analogy.
After we ask God for forgiveness we need to picture us walking into our art gallery and taking down every framed ugly picture from when we have done wrong. Then after we have gathered all of these pictures we need to visualize ourselves handing them over to God and asking Him to please take them out of our gallery forever and He will. That is so awesome!
We have all done things that we regret in our lives. I know you look at some people and think "If they only knew what kind of person I have been at times they would be shocked." The funny thing is they are probably thinking the same thing. No matter how good someone seems on the outside ALL OF US have done things in our life that we regret deeply and consider to be down right awful. But you know what? Whether it has been explosive relationships, divorce, bad parenting, promiscuity, abortion, stealing, gossiping, substance abuse, physical abuse, etc..you need to forgive yourself and move on. Dwelling on the things that we have done will never change the past so you are not doing any good by thinking about these things over and over and over again. We need to review our mistakes (not dwell)...take a lesson and learn...and then MOVE ON! Then WHEN WE KNOW BETTER, WE DO BETTER.
After reading this today I would like all of you to find a time when things are quiet and peaceful....maybe while your in bed, maybe while your in your car, (I think about things a lot in the shower) but find the time to walk the halls of the art gallery in your mind. Imagine all of those ugly things from your past framed in big picture frames hanging on the wall. Stop and look at them for a moment....reflect...remind yourself that no one is perfect and that you are not that person anymore. Then take those pictures down one by one and hand them over to God. Not only will there be no more ugly pictures to look at but you will have more room in your gallery to hang the beautiful awesome memories of your life that are still to come. When you forgive yourself for good you will keep your own mind full of peace, your own heart full of love, and your own soul full of joy. :)
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. (and that includes forgiving ourselves) ~ Mohandas Gandhi
I finally forgave me a few years back and it was one of the best things I ever did.
Remember...God gives us HOPE when there seems to be none. ~ Your friend Lib
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