Okay, so this person was totally horrible to you and feels no remorse whatsoever. You're mad, yeah. So what? Is being miserable and loathing this person with your every breath helping the situation? nooooooooo.

Forgiveness is a wonderful thing. I'm sure glad God doesn't say, "Well you haven't been nice to me for a while, so I'm just going to stay mad at you. Hmmph." That wouldn't be a happy thing. I've found there are different levels of forgiveness.... For example, if someone you love very much says something to hurt your feelings very badly, yes, you're going to be upset. But if you think about it for a couple of days, you might find they were just stating their opinion, and hey, you just don't agree on it. That's not their fault. It's not your fault either. That's just how they think, and you have to deal with it in whatever way necessary. In that case, you just forgive them and GO ON. Keep on loving them, but figure out how to deal with your differences.

That's fairly simple, though pain is usually a part of it. Now there's this girl who has been mean to you since kindergarten and STILL has an attitude and a half. You can't seem to forget that time she talked you out of eating the snack that day in kindergarten when they finally had bananas rather than nasty brown pears. okay, so it sounds silly, but really, this person cannot be nice to you--it's like it would kill them. This is one of those harder situations where you have to suck up your pride and grow up. that's how a lot of "I'm not going to forgive her" situations are, on different levels and circumstances.

We want to be like God, right? Well this is a big step. Who was it that said "Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have also done unto me,"?

"Love God. Love people. That's the center of the mark." --4Him One more quote that for the life of me I can't remember where I read, if I ever find it I'll let you know, but it was something awesome like, "Hate cannot drive out hate....only love can do that."

Lacy