Melissa and Turk

Today's Scripture
"But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." (Mark 11:26)


Today's Word from Joel and Victoria
No one promised that life would always be fair. People are imperfect; we make mistakes and bad decisions. You may have been hurt by others in the past, but the important part is how you choose to deal with that hurt. Failing to let go of the past and holding on to grudges and anger can only cause harm in your life. If you want to keep your joy and remove what could become some huge roadblocks in your path, decide to forgive others, whether or not they ask for forgiveness. God says His daily forgiveness, in the sense of His daily favor and blessings, is based on your willingness to forgive others. When you forgive, you will find new strength and begin to experience God's breath-taking blessings!

A Prayer for Today
God, thank You for Your forgiveness. I know that I don't deserve it, but I praise You for faithfully forgiving me. Help me to clear any roadblocks in my path by forgiving others, even as You forgive me. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20.00 bill?” Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the bill. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up. “Well”, he replied, “what if I do this?” He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now, who still wants it?” Still the hands went into the air. “My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still a priceless and highly valued human being. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or whom we know, but by WHO WE ARE. You are special – DON’T EVER FORGET THAT.”

“We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others. Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground. Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.”

-Pema Chödrön
, In the Gap Between Right and Wrong