Recently I overreacted about a
situation that could cost me a very beautiful friendship. I asked for
forgiveness and I pray they will .... I found this information to be very
helpful in the mean time.
From Reaction to
Recovery
How long does it take you to recover
when you have been wronged? A few
minutes, a few days or months, even years?
The elapsed time between the pain of reaction and the healing of
recovery is a pretty good measure of your emotional and spiritual
maturity. Some people never recover. They spend the rest of their lives in angry,
bitter unforgiving reaction.
I'll never forget the man who sat in
my office shortly after we moved to Manila
"And when did this
happen?" I asked.
"Twelve years ago,' he
responded.
Okay, you've been wronged. Maybe you got fired without real cause, or
your husband walked out on you and broke up your marriage----and you reacted,
of course. Whenever a nail gets driven
into your heart or your hand, you react, but how longs does it take to cry out,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." That's the measure of your maturity as a
Christian. Those who hold on to anger,
living for revenge or restitution, are the real losers. They're incarcerated in a prison of hate. But those who say, "Okay, this happened,
but I'm going to get on with my life," are the ones who find the grace of
God to put matters behind them---which is what forgiveness is all about. They are the real winners.
An old gentlemen, nearly ninety,
seemed to be happy all the time. A
friend said to him, "You don't seem to have an enemy in the world. What's your secret?" The old man replied, "You're right. I don't have any enemies. I outlived 'em all."
If you want to outlive your enemies,
get on with your life, forget that they're enemies, ask God to help you forgive
them, and release the bitterness of the past.
That's how you move from reaction to recovery.
-Harold Sala,Tomorrow
Starts Today 365 Devotional Guidelines for Daily Living
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