mpowergen.com blog » Forgiveness http://mpowergen.com/blog empowering women hour by hour Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:19:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Opportunity Knocks http://mpowergen.com/blog/2010/03/15/opportunity-knocks/ http://mpowergen.com/blog/2010/03/15/opportunity-knocks/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:28:07 +0000 Administrator http://mpowergen.com/blog/?p=452 Opportunity knocks…and sometimes it knocks us right over till we fall into a rut. I was listening to an encounter among children recently. Julia was cleaning the room she shares with Claire. Claire, who (thankfully) has shown some signs of maturity lately, wanted to help. (Note: opportunity.) She even knocked on the closed door. (Opportunity knocking.) Julia hollers from her room, “No, you can’t come in. I’m cleaning. You will mess it up!”

Claire responded, “But I want to help. I won’t mess it up….”

Will Julia take advantage of the opportunity to work with her sister? Will she continue in solitude with negative energy toward Claire while she remembers past experiences of Claire knocking over books or pulling clothing from drawers? Julia will have to choose whether or not to open the door…

And so will we. Opportunities are knocking all around us. The relationships we have with those we love need to be nurtured just as the people we meet in the grocery store need our smiles. We choose each day whether we will bless others and ourselves with the opportunity to forgive and be forgiven, to love and be loved, to offer and to receive. Will we ponder on the blessings that come from these opportunities, or will we let the opportunities knock us into a rut where we bury ourselves with feelings of self-pity and malice?

What did Julia do? Well, she took a chance. She let the opportunity in…and now I hear laughter coming from the general direction of their bedroom. :) How long do you think it will last?

]]> http://mpowergen.com/blog/2010/03/15/opportunity-knocks/feed/ 8 I Forgot; No Worries http://mpowergen.com/blog/2009/10/26/i-forgot-no-worries/ http://mpowergen.com/blog/2009/10/26/i-forgot-no-worries/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:19:35 +0000 Administrator http://mpowergen.com/blog/?p=16 So, I have spent a significant part of my life dodging certain situations, trying to figure out how to minimize my mistakes and play up my successes.  Do we all do this at one time or another?  I don’t know.  Lately, though, I have taken a different approach.  I noticed the fruits of this process just the other day when I saw my sweet neighbor whom I will call Claudia.  “Claudia” and I often walk in the evenings for stress relief (and, yes, I will admit exercise).  She will call a bit before bedtime and ask, “So, do you think you can walk tonight?”  My responses vary by degree of stress in my life, the activities of the evening, or the rate at which my children drift into blessed slumberings.

So, the call came, and I am sure I could’ve used the walk.  Trevor was out for a few minutes, but I expected him back soon and promised to call her.  Well, he came home, we did internet research, put fussy little ones to sleep, and chatted.  10:45 p.m. came, and I gasped.  I had forgotten Claudia.  Oh, no.  What to do?  Do I send her a quick apology text?  Do I just ignore the whole scenario?  (I sadly must admit that the latter would’ve been my option of choice even just a few years ago…and even now days come and go when I still feel this way…ugh!)

I drove our children to school the next day, and who was on the sidewalk as we walked up toward my twins’ classroom?  Yep, it was Claudia.  I came up behind her, tagged her arm, and immediately blurted out a sincere apology (I totally forgot!!!).  Come to find out, she had worked on organizing something…and had totally crashed herself.  No worries.  Often people in New Zealand use this expression–”no worries”– and adopt its philosophy; my husband lived there for two years, and he has certainly reaped blessings for bringing this positive outlook back to his life in the States.  :)

Well, I could’ve run away, avoided her, continued to feel badly, etc.–but I faced the fury (which was really nonexistent except within my mind) and confessed:  I forgot.  No worries.  iphonejune2009 372

I can be wrong, or mess up, or whatever.  Or I can face my mistakes and reach out to those whom I might have offended.  Most often I find forgiveness and much less stress when I address the issue instead of run from people.  How about you?

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