I heard some awesome news this week. My former husband is getting
married! Now, this is "awesome"
because he said he'd never marry again. (Well,
I did, too, for that matter.) But God had different plans!
I'm really happy for
him and his new bride because everyone
should be as happily married as William and I are. I want that for you,
divorced reader, but I especially want that for my former husband. I remember
how much I shut myself off from others to live "safely." I didn't
date. I worked, went to church and Bible Study, but I lived an isolated life. A
self-imposed isolation that seemed to protect me from my relational lot in life,
"hurt and be hurt."
Last week at Bible
Study, our leader asked our group some provocative questions about our progress
as Christians. You know, how are you doing in this area of your life? He began
with, "How do you know you have forgiven someone?" The discussion
approached the typical responses of "forgive and forget," plus
more.
Jesus and Bill
helped me to remember the good memories of my past marriages because there were
many. When a painful memory surfaced, I quickly recalled, "Oh, but I have
forgiven him for that." I learned that if I am bitter and resentful when I
think of a person or an event, then I have not fully forgiven and there's more
work to do. But when I remember the wound or the offense and I have total peace, then forgiveness is
complete.
The second question he
asked is the title of the blog post today. "How
do you know you've been forgiven?" The best response came from a young
woman who said, "You know because they don't remind you of what you did." 1st Corinthians 13 says that Love, unconditional love, keeps no record of the wrongs done to it.
OUCH!
Today I marvel at
how God restored and is continually restoring my life. Over three years
ago, He spoke to me through a dream, and its interpretation shook off my hermit
life to create a community life that I could never have dreamed of. It
could not have happened had I not been willing to yield to His Will and to risk
experiencing “hurt” again. And so, I am happy beyond words to hear that my
former spouse opened his heart to romance again and yielded to God's Will for
his life.
It's never too late
to live happily ever after. So, "Dare
to dream!"
