I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport about to fly home after speaking to a beautiful group of single moms last night. The setting at the event was stunning; gorgeous flower arrangements, candles, sparkling plate settings… Arriving was like walking into a dream.
The day before I left to speak, I was prepared to talk about how to overcome your past and walk in your purpose. There were three main points I had planned to deliver that included three steps I personally took to overcome my past so I could walk in my purpose. I was excited to share them with these “hero moms,” but then something happened.
Divine Redirect
In the early morning hours, I was spending time in prayer and meditation, and that’s when it happened: an unexpected Divine Redirect. Suddenly, I was no longer at peace with the message I had crafted several weeks ago.
I felt like I needed to remove the third point and use that time to have the women do an exercise. The exercise was related to them taking the first steps towards applying what I would teach them in points one and two.
So, I rewrote this section of my talk and purchased and prepared the supplies I needed to implement the exercise. It felt good.
Fast forward to within 20 minutes before I was about to take the stage. I was sitting in the sound booth, after being mic’d up, going over my notes. I began to sense that I should remove even more of my planned talk so we could spend more time on the exercise. But I couldn’t figure out which parts to remove.
There were so many important teachings that would be beneficial for the audience to hear, and I didn’t want to shortchange them. So, I disregarded the nudge and left the talk as-is.
Well, there’s a saying in Proverbs, “The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” Since I was unwilling to trust that nudge to remove more of my talk, the deletion took place while I was on stage in the middle of my speech!
The three points that turned into two, on the spot, unexpectedly turned into one. Multiple things were going through my head while I stood before this room full of women. It was clear, there was only one truth I was to deliver that night.
So I did.
I stopped my talk after sharing only one of my original three points and instead, I had them do an exercise applying what they had learned.
The Importance of Forgiveness
The point I shared was how recognizing the need to forgive can empower you to overcome your past and walk in your purpose.
I shared a personal story of deep hurt from my own life that led to me being bitter, resentful, and unable to forgive those who had hurt me. Then, I went on to talk about how unforgiveness can affect our lives without us even knowing it.
Here is a summary of what I shared:
- Not forgiving is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. It is not the other person’s life that is most affected by you not forgiving them. It’s your life that is negatively affected. It can:
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- Steal your joy
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- Sabotage your future
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- Distract you from your purpose
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- Drain your energy
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- Imprison your mind
- Forgiving someone will take acknowledging and processing the pain they have caused you. The healing that enables you to extend true forgiveness, may not happen overnight or just because you verbalize the words.
- You can actually choose to forgive with your words but still live with unforgiveness in your hearts. That unforgiveness will show up in different ways and adversely affect your life.
- Forgiving does not mean you allow the person to continue to hurt you or your children. It is important to have healthy boundaries in place to keep you physically and emotionally safe.
Overwhelming Response
The response of the women during the exercise was overwhelming. The majority of the room indicated that there were people in their lives they needed to forgive and they were ready to do so.
They chose to stop blaming others for their brokenness and hardships in life, and instead take responsibility for their own well-being. They no longer wanted unforgiveness to stand in the way of them and their purpose.
What about you?
If in this group of random women about 90% to 95% of them were struggling to forgive someone, how many more of us are out there who struggle with the same thing?
I unknowingly struggled for years with unforgiveness and I didn’t know how much it was affecting the rest of my life. But once I discovered the struggle and how I could be set free through forgiveness, it was life-changing.
I want the same type of life-changing experience for you. Surely, your story will look different from mine, but it will be just as sweet in the end.
Maybe this topic of forgiveness has brought some names and faces to mind. If so, what will you do about those names and faces? Will you continue to allow them to control you from afar or will you choose to forgive them and take back your life?