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Old 01-30-2010, 05:09 PM   #55
mudra
Avalon Spiritual Mother
 
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: belgium
Posts: 4,919
Default Re: can you FORGIVE us?

I found this nice story that fits so well the topic of your thread Illuminate ...

About a year ago, my boyfriend and I had split up. The cause for this had many elements that culminated to deliver the last blow. He was away from home often, I wasn't happy where we lived, our lives were quite stressful etc. etc. etc. You know the story. I was left devastated, with the wind completely knocked out of my sails so to speak. One morning I was standing in the shower when I experienced a rather persistent 'idea' coming to me. It was just one word: 'Forgiveness'. This, I thought was a bit strange... especially the fact that it wouldn't go away. It kept ringing at the back of my mind. Eventually, I sat down at the computer and Googled the word. I typed in 'forgiveness' and hit the enter button.

Loads of links popped up and I clicked on one randomly. Here, I discovered the story of a woman who had a similar nudging that I had had earlier that morning. Her problem however, was her father. He was a very militant type who never showed any emotion and was very aggressive, critical and just downright unavailable as a dad. She was interested in what Jesus had said about having to forgive seventy times seven times and decided that perhaps, there is a deeper meaning behind this than just taking it at face value.

Then, every day for seven days she sat down and wrote in long-hand: 'I forgive my father.' She noted that she really didn't mean it at the beginning, but that she kept going. It didn't matter that she didn't mean it initially. What did matter was that she was taking the first step towards releasing the poison of anger and bitterness that has imprisoned her for a lifetime. A while after this week of focused and structured forgiveness, she was visiting her parents. Over a period of time she had noticed a change in her old man, but by now the change was very evident and she commented on it to her mother. "Hasn't Dad just changed so much, Mom?" she said. "I know it sounds strange," her mother replied, "but it's only with you."

If you happen to be the person who wrote that story, I'd just like to thank you for paying it forward. It helped me to discover the power of forgiveness in my life. After having read it, I thought about it for a long time. Not without resistance either. There was no way I was going to spend the rest of my life making forgiveness lists. I simply didn't have the time and I get pretty bored pretty quickly. Then, one day, it dawned on me. I had to make a forgiveness rosary. I took 70 rose quartz beads and strung them up in a rosary fashion and every day for seven days, I would close my eyes and forgive the man out loud, as I moved from one bead to the next, using it as a sort of abacus of prayers. By saying one prayer for each bead you pull aside, one can safely remove your mind from counting. By the time you reach the knot, you know that you've said 70 prayers. This prayer has brought about some interesting events in my life.

The changes that happened were initially hardly visible and yet so powerful. We ended up getting back together again in the end and then, one day, upon my commenting on how much he's changed, he replied: "but I didn't try or do anything to change'. What I've learned about forgiveness is that it is a means of healing from within, above all else. The Forgiveness Prayer has become a part of my daily life now and I can recommend it to anyone who's ready to see the power of positive change happen in their lives & especially those who have difficult relationships with anyone from their parents to their spouse.

It will not always be easy and you will have to keep going at it, but the peace that comes from this prayer really is Divine and you will notice the change. Try it & then share it.


Love Always
mudra
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