So much more than intended...

Do you ever just want one night during the week to be lazy? It seems we always have something going on and this week has been no different.

A friend of mine had an extra set of tickets to the TN vs KY basketball game so she gave them to us. Tuesday night we drove to Knoxville for the 9pm tip off.
I love basketball(way more than football even though I'm from the South) so it was worth staying up so late but not so sure that it was worth feeling tired the next day since they lost!



I recently joined a book club and we met last night to discuss The Shack.



I encourage you to read this, it was a little difficult for me to get into at first. Much of the story focuses on forgiveness, which we all have faced. The main character has to learn to forgive first God (or at least to come to an intellectual understanding of why God was unable to intervene to save his daughter) and then to forgive the murderer that harmed his daughter.

I am adamantly opposed to the idea that we would ever need to forgive God for anything. He has a plan for each and everyone of us and I do not feel that harming a person is a part of His plan. This teaching is seen only vaguely in the book. The author does speak of another area of forgiveness, unconditional forgiveness that we all have faced at some point in our lives.

I wish this book included foot notes that would relate back to the Bible so that I could see exactly which scripture the author was referring to if any at all. I would like to emphasize this was not a true story and I do not believe everything I read without verifying the source.

Growing up I always learned that repentance must precede forgiveness. Without repentance there can be no forgiveness. This is true of God’s offer of forgiveness to us and, as we are to model this in our human relationships, must be true of how we offer forgiveness to others.

At the same time I have forgiven others when they have not asked to be forgiven. It can be for small things like taking a parking spot or forgiving my husband for drinking the last of the milk when I just poured a bowl of cereal. There have been more important issues in my life that I have had to come to terms with.

I do not usually get this personal on this blog but for some reason this book has moved me to share this and it is MY blog. I am not close with my biological father, my parents divorced right before my freshman year of high school. My father was emotionally and physically abusive to my mom. He never physically hurt his kids but emotionally it has affected us more than we deserved. I have not always felt like we had his support. We went through the court system, didn't see him for months, over a year or two. We never spoke of this, I still am not sure that even some of my closest friends know all of the story. I have always tried to block it out but realized it bothered me more than I ever let on.

It has taken me years, many years to come to where I am today. I have forgiven my father for myself, I could not live with the anger that I held towards him for so many years. I feel this part of my testimony shows that abuse can happen in any family, no matter your race, religion or how much money you have.

Since then my mom has remarried and my step dad is amazing, I asked him to give me away and walk me down the aisle. My biological father did not attend my wedding and I know it bothers me but it has to bother him even more to know what a great day he missed out on.

My mom is my rock, my hero, the one person who has taught me about true forgiveness. What it means to forgive in your heart so that you may have a better life and understanding of how God wants you to be happy and enjoy this beautiful gift of life.

I had no intention of posting any of this today. I just feel like it has been heavy on my heart after reading The Shack. If you need to forgive someone, do it today, do it for yourself and allow God to make you whole again. You never know if you will be able to forgive them tomorrow.



On a lighter note, I am looking forward to the next book club reading... The Glass Castle.