Day 22: Love forgets mistakes

Love forgets mistakes; nagging about them parts the best of friends.

 The Second post in this series HERE, Tomilola talked about how Love gives a clean slate but we cannot give clean slates when we've not completely let go [forgotten] of what the person did. Forgiving and forgetting work hand in hand. Sometimes we say "I've forgiven you" but deep down we can't stand being around whoever upset us without feeling anger or pain. Read ITUNU'S [Author of glowingscenes.com] experience on forgiving and also forgetting in today's post!

It takes love to forgive.

It takes Love to allow oneself forgive and forget whatever wrong anybody ever did.

And it takes love to see yourself worth working on before others.

Ultimately, it takes choice to Love. It takes strength and due to our weakness, we are unable to love naturally.

It takes strength from a source high above us.

It takes God who is Love to show us what Love is all about.

It takes Love to know what Love is really about.

When I left LUTH in 2011, I didn't know I hadn't forgiven an old friend of mine. Believe me if you asked me if I had about 3-4 years ago, I would tell you I had forgiven her. Even when I had the chance to do so as she was posted to my place of work for her externship during my internship after a year of us being apart after graduation. I remember seeing her and remembering what was between us, I remember wondering if it was God who had made her do her one-month externship where I happened to be doing my internship. What were the odds?

Due to the little resentment I had, anytime I remembered how she hurt me in the past, even when I took her as a friend, I would recoil. I would stay away from her as far as I could. Even when we worked together, I would try as much as possible not to have anything that would put us in the same place. Ultimately, I was scared of her. And yet, I had 'forgiven' her in my 'self-righteous' mind. We behaved like strangers but exchanged pleasantries when it was necessary so that 'heaven' would see I wasn't keeping malice and I was a 'good' girl.

I'm like a child, till I grow into perfection, till I come to the full knowledge of what this 'Love' is really about. I was able to forgive and forget every wrong my friend did and even called her, this was last year and I could tell she was surprised.

Oh the joy and relief I felt when I knew I had really forgiven and forgotten what she did to me. And I felt sorry that instead of blaming her all these while, why didn't I see that I had been at fault too? Why didn't I advertise Jesus? Why did I allow my ignorance about Love to push her far away from me? Why did I repay the wrong she did to me with evil? Why did I choose to remember her wrong rather than forget what she'd done and embrace her with God's love?

Oh the amount of time I would have saved, who even knows, the closer she might have been drawn to Christ by the love I chose to show.

And so I remember the good sides of her because I want to. I want to remember the way she talked and the way she laughed and the way we were as friends before everything went wrong. This is a choice because LOVE works irrespective of feelings.

But let's be honest, do you know how hard it is to Love someone who wants you dead or hates you even? What did Jesus say we should do to these kinds of people?

That we pray for them, NOT against them. I imagine how the life of Saul would have been had Stephen chose not to pray for him. We all know the radical Paul became in Christ don't we? And that's what God did through His Son.

How do we know LOVE? This is how we know Love, He loved us before we loved him and so without God, it's impossible to Love. I had bought into the world's description of love years ago and where did it put me? God's kind of love doesn't put you in trouble and it doesn't exalt itself in iniquity. It doesn't rejoice in evil or happy at the downfall of others, love works irrespective of all of this, love is not a flimsy feeling, it's not something you can't control, it's something you can and it's a choice. Because God had a choice to leave us to damnation but he rescued us, and he's still rescuing us till date.

There would be obstacles, there would be trails, believe me there would be days you feel like you can't go on anymore and just want to let go because Love breaks you as a person, it reduces you to what you weren't before. Yes it does. I've had days when I just don't think I can do it because how can you love someone who doesn't want to have anything to do with you or hates you even but that was what Jesus did, He took off his glory and came to take my filth and crooked glory. We had nothing I tell you and yet, he chose to give me what He had. This can break a person when you enter this knowledge of what Christ did.  

But that's why we have Jesus, our firm and sure foundation. To catch us when we fall and to run to us when we run. To provide strength for us in our weakness and to assure us that he already won the war over 2000 years ago and so the battle can be won as well.

 This is day 22 of #31daysofLovinlikeJesus you can click here to see a list of posts in these series.

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