As we forgive others, we are teaching the mind to respond with forgiveness everywhere, even to the misdeeds and mistakes of our own past. -- Eknath Easwaran, "Words to Live By," February 20
Forgiveness. The very word is unforgiving...it has no give to it. So insists my "me first" mind.
It is often said...or preached...that when we come to forgiveness, we must put ourself first...reasoning that if we have not forgiven ourself we cannot forgive others. Ah, egoic mind at its finest, and a flat denial of trust that God has our back.
I learned, if we are living a turned-over life, that we will already have another in first place, namely, the God of our own understanding. That one has the care and comfort of us personally, leaving our job to be extending care and comfort to others...especially the "other" currently ticking us off.
We will come to learn that other is our angel in disguise. We will learn this by our act of forgiveness toward them...which boils down to when we change our mind; or when we quit with the talk only and start to rely more and more on the decision we made to turn our will and our life over to the care of God.
In short, we never put our name at the head of the list of those who need our forgiveness. We do for others because our need has become our want...we want to do for others. Forgiveness of self is no longer a self-determined objection, it is of God, ours without thought or planning.
There...the rely-on-it result of our needs being met and our wants not counting.
The Father knows our needs...count on it.
Thank you.
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