bad habits

Selfishness
Selfishness shouts, "I have been hurt! It is so unfair. I have rights!" What I am really saying is that how I feel about the hurt is more important than forgiving the hurt.

Pride
Pride cries, "Look at what they have done to me. Don't they realize who I am?" To receive or give forgiveness requires humility.

Low self-esteem
Some of us have built an entire identity around a hurt. The attention we gain from the wrong we have suffered defines who we are. It is something we cherish and refuse to relinquish for the sake of forgiveness.

Blindness
We may be blind to the fact that we have not forgiven a hurt. We have convinced ourselves that we really have forgiven the one who hurt us by going through the motions and saying the right words without really dealing with the pain. In reality, all we have done is dig a hole and bury the pain. As long as hurt is buried alive, it will keep resurrecting itself in our life, but when the hurt is dealt with and forgiveness is given, the pain is buried dead - and it stays dead.

Pain
Forgiveness is spiritual surgery. It exposes old hurts that have never completely healed. We can move, change jobs, change churches, change friends or even change families, but until we yank up the root of bitterness and cover it with forgiveness, we will live with unresolved pain.

Ignorance
Maybe we don't know how to forgive someone because are under the impression that forgiveness is an emotion or feeling. True forgiveness is a choice - a deliberate choice to release the person who has hurt us from the pain they have caused. We can stop forgiving others when God stops forgiving us.

We need to identify and eliminate the roadblocks to forgiveness so God can set us free, heal our pain and make us more like Him. Now that is a remodeling job I would welcome.

no fear in god

When we focus only on what we can see and understand or explain, we will worry. Fear and doubt will become familiar companions if we live each day against the backdrop of this broken world. Our only hope is God. And it is not enough to just know about Him. We must know Him. A personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ assures us that no matter what the world throws our way, it's all going to be okay.

Spiritual drink

There are times we need a shot of God-caffeine in our day. A spiritual espresso.

Words

Words are powerful. Words can destroy or build. We need to make the choice today - to respond in the right way to those angry words that are surely headed our way tomorrow.

Confrontation is wrapped in prayer & tied with the lovely bow of love

"Dear Heavenly Father, I'll admit that sometimes I act like Ginger (the dog) and dig for the dirt rather than caring for the person. Help love always to be my ultimate goal, and if I ever have one bit of pleasure in correcting someone, I pray that I will keep my mouth shut and worry about the dirt in my own life that needs to be cleaned up."

The shepherd

SAB: That's me.

The lamb developed such a close relationship with the shepherd, that when its leg was healed, the lamb would never again wander away from the one who had rescued it and cared for it so tenderly.

Patience

"You may be waiting for your life to just fall into place, hoping that the things you are doing will achieve balance. The opposite is true. A powerful life comes from a balanced life."