Healing Requires Forgiveness

From: MarriageVine Ministries [mailto:rick@marriagevine.ccsend.com] On Behalf Of MarriageVine Ministries
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 11:15 AM
To: billandpatcoffin@verizon.net
Subject: Healing Requires Forgiveness

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Marriage Focus by MarriageVine

 

Hurting Marriages Need Forgiveness 

by Dr. Gary Chapman

 

 

Hope for the SeparatedPast failures need not destroy your hope for a better future. If you choose, you can take steps that may well restore your marriage to health. It all begins with forgiving the past.

All of us have failures in the past. We can let them stand as barriers to our future, or we can forgive them and build a new and deeper relationship. As long as we keep bringing up the past, we will be forever bogged down in frustration.

The past cannot be undone. It can only be forgiven.

Forgiveness is not a feeling. It is a choice to lift the penalty and let the other person back into your life. It opens up the possibility to building something different in the future.

Forgiveness does not mean forgetting. The memories may return, but when they do, we take them to God and pray this prayer. "Father, You know what I'm remembering, but I thank you that it is history. Now help me to do something positive today."

Forgiving is the first step toward a growing marriage.  

Today's article is based on the book, Hope for the Separated.   For a complete listing of Dr. Chapman's books and resources, click here.

Dying in the Small Stuff 

by David and Lisa Frisbie 

The Soul Mate Marriage


Dying to self is a thousand little choices we make every day. 

 

It is thinking about someone else as you rise and begin your morning. 

 

It is praying for someone throughout the day instead of wondering  whether anyone is praying about you and remembering your challenges. 

 

It is coming home tired from work, but choosing to serve and comfort someone else who is also tired instead of putting your feet up and waiting for a foot massage.

 

Dying to self is about forgetting all those arguments over "whose turn it is."

 

It is changing the diaper or getting up for the feeding, or even carrying out the trash or putting away the dishes.  It's a lot of little choices we make when all we want to do is sit down and relax, maybe read the paper, or maybe watch some television.

 

Dying to self is like that - it is daily, and it's about the small stuff. 

 

 

 


Content taken from Soul-Mate Marriage: The Spiritual Journey of Becoming One by David and Lisa Frisbie, published by Harvest House Publishing. 

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