Do you ever have those situations you look back on and wish you would have handled them differently? I hate those situations. Why can’t I just handle them right the first time? This is usually caused by emotions. Sometimes the emotions are personal and sometimes they are driven by external entities.
I guess this is kind of another confession. But it’s also a way for me to ask for forgiveness.
Similar to the story I shared yesterday (here), a good friend of mine started dating this guy that did not have a good history. So many people had tried helping him but at that time, he didn’t want help. This led almost everybody to turn their backs on him, everybody but my friend. And because she decided to stick it out with him, we all essentially abandoned her as well.
Some rumors started getting tossed around about some things that he did to her. To show our disapproval of her being with this guy, all of us basically ignored these two in any group setting.
At that time, I wasn’t really strong in my faith. I had my own thoughts and my thoughts were for her to leave this guy because he will just get you into trouble. I assumed that God would agree.
So like the story yesterday, I was like the brother-in-law. I would have kicked him to the curb and never looked back.
But my friend showed me something that I’m not sure many Christians would do today. It didn’t matter how many times he relapsed, how many times he wronged her, she forgave him every time he asked for forgiveness. The sad part is, I don’t even know if my friend was a Christian but they definitely portrayed one of the greatest acts of forgiveness that I’ve ever personally witnessed.
Because of my friend’s persistence and willingness to forgive and forget, they are now happily married and he is drug free.