Forgiveness....Part 2

After typing Tina's recent blog entitled "Forgiveness" for her I realized that God put something on my heart to add to it...

Recently I have been teaching my daughter Katie about the concept of forgiveness and how Jesus forgave all of our sins and as Katie likes to put it "He takes all of our bad stuff away when we ask Him too". Well, the other morning I confess that I allowed myself to get upset because Katie kept calling out again and again for my attention but I was busy helping Tina so I raised my voice and told her to wait. A few seconds later I raised my voice again, this time not in anger but in an attempt for her to hear me since she was halfway across the house. I called out to her and told her that I was sorry and to please forgive me. There was a slight pause and then I heard a small angelic voice say "It's ok daddy." A little while later I was helping her brush her teeth and I asked her again to please forgive me for yelling at her and to my surprise she smiled and said "Daddy....don't you remember this morning??" At first I was puzzled because I remembered what I had done wrong...but then I remembered what happened afterwards. "Ohh do you mean that I don't need to ask you to forgive me again because I already asked you to forgive me this morning? She looked up at me and sweetly smiled and said "Yes, of course Daddy." The concept of forgiveness made perfect sense to her at the age of 4. And Jesus said "unless you become like little children you shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 18:3

Have you ever been there before? You do something wrong and then you ask God to forgive you but for some reason you feel like you have to keep asking for His forgiveness. Well I have been there plenty of times, especially when I feel like I have "really blown it". This moment in time with my 4 year old reminded me that when we come to God and ask Him to forgive us that He does so willingly, graciously and immediately. So my encouragement for you today is... when you ask Jesus to forgive you, immediately receive His forgiveness, ask Him to help you from doing it again and then leave your burdens at the cross where they belong.

Update: Tina has had one seizure and a lot of fatigue and weakness this past week but she has not had any serious side effects from the new chemo. Praise God! We are so grateful to Him for each and every day He blesses us with :)

- A messenger of God