You're Strong Enough (13 page)

Love Them No Matter What

We may not always like the choices our parents make—especially if they affect us negatively. But, we can always choose to love them—no matter what. God commanded us to love and honor our parents. Why would He do that if He knew they would mess up and possibly affect our life negatively?
Because God knows what they are going through. Only He will judge their actions.
If we don’t forgive them and love them despite their choices, that may affect us negatively (i.e., patterning your life after theirs—negatively).

Parents are human, and therefore can’t be expected to be perfect. As a parent now, I screw up often because of the way I was raised. I hope my children will forgive me my shortcomings and they will do a better job than I am doing with their future kids. Parents are being tempted by Satan as well. Show them kindness, as you would want to be shown if you were going through the same hardships as they are. Our fight is against Satan, not each other. Remember, you chose your parents in the Preexistence for a reason. They are here to either help you or for you to help them or both.
Be the warrior of light for them, especially if they are not capable of doing it for you at this
time.

Forgiving Yourself

During our quests we will get wounded, have dark mists come over our paths, be tested to the brink, be tempted by Satan and be tried. As a result we will fumble, fall, bleed, doubt, fear, cry and just flat-out fail. We are not perfect. When we fall, we need to pick ourselves up, forgive ourselves and start again.

If we cannot forgive ourselves for the mistakes we’ve made, then, again, Satan will send dark mists to cloud our views of our potential as heirs in the Kingdom of God.

When we do things that are wrong, guilt is supposed to motivate us to ask for forgiveness.
But Satan uses guilt to create shame and hopelessness, to blind us from our individual worth and divine destiny. Don’t give in to Satan’s promptings of guilt and shame. His plan will always be to put us on a path of darkness. Therefore, use guilt as a motivator to repent, so you can stay true to your course.

Forgiving yourself, as well as others, will bring you freedom from darkness. The freedom that comes from forgiveness will bring the power of choice and healing back into your life. This freedom will also bring peace while climbing mountains, no puppet strings attached to our soul, joy from knowing who we really are and love for the One that created us.

Your Quest for Freedom

Your first quest
for freedom begins with writing down the names of all those you feel have harmed you. After you have completed your list, cross out the ones that you have forgiven completely (no bad feelings toward them). Circle the ones that you’re not sure if you have forgiven. Put a star beside the ones that you know you haven’t forgiven. Then write down how you feel about the ones you haven’t forgiven. Decide today if you want them to continue to cloud your view of your divine destiny and fill your life with darkness. Forgive them and remember why you are here, to overcome all obstacles.

Your second quest
is to write down any harmful secrets that you may be carrying. If you do have any harmful secrets, write down how they are consuming your life. Write down how much more you fear people now, you doubt yourself, you question people’s motives and whether you trust people now. If you are carrying a harmful secret, write down the names of people you feel you can trust and talk to them, get it off your chest and take your power back.

Your third quest
is to talk to your parents. Talk to your parents honestly. If they have done anything to hurt you that you may be holding a grudge for, tell them that you want to forgive them for any wrongs they may have done, because you love them. If they are divorced, then tell them to please not badmouth the other, curse the other in front of you, or try to have you hate them.

Your last quest
is to dig deep inside and see if there is anything you haven’t forgiven yourself for. If there is, then ask yourself why. Do you feel you don’t deserve it, or it’s too bad, or you don’t think you can be forgiven? If there are items you haven’t asked for forgiveness for, do so. Ask God to forgive you. As He does, forgive yourself. Then move on.

Once you have moved on from unforgiveness toward yourself and others, you will have just created bluer skies on your quest home to our Heavenly Father.

Forgiveness will set you free.

Prayer will make your stronger.

Love will hold you tighter.

Parents will appreciate your example.

W
ould it be easier for you to forgive if you saw justice being dealt with promptly? Maybe. Unfortunately, that’s not how God works. In the Preexistence, we fought for free agency, the freedom to choose for ourselves whether to make good choices or bad choices. Some will abuse that power. Therefore, because of free agency, this question will always remain the same: Will man do what is right and uplift others or will he do what is wrong and hurt others?

In reality, our free agency is the only thing that we have power over.
We can either help others and ourselves when we follow God’s plan and do what is right, or we can destroy others and ourselves when we follow Satan’s designs and do what is wrong. With this in mind, if God dealt quickly and swiftly with those who did wrong, wouldn’t that scare them into doing what is right?

God uses the Spirit of Christ to guide us by gently reminding us what is right and what is wrong.
For instance, our Heavenly Father has placed road signs on our path home. But, he cannot force us to follow them. Similarly, God does not allow Satan to force us to be evil. That has to be our choice. But Satan can tempt us to do his will through making poor choices. Everyone has the choice to which path they will choose, and God has two plans that deal with those who choose to abuse their free agency or go down a dark path.

God’s Plan of Justice

Though God cannot and will not take away the free agency of man, God can and will use the eternal law of justice.
The law of justice demands that someone pay for every sin we commit. Either we pay for our own sins, or Jesus Christ our Savior pays for them. It doesn’t matter who, but someone must pay the price. Those who have harmed you or who are harming you will pay for their wrongs in the next life if they do not repent and make amends for their wrongs in this life. If they repent, Christ pays for their sins. If they do not repent, they will pay for their own sins.

Every unrepentant soul will suffer as Christ suffered.
Everything that happens on Earth will be made fair in the next life. As stated in Matt 8:12, “But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Those who follow Satan’s plan and harm others will suffer as Christ suffered. In fact, they will suffer until the sin has satisfied the demands of justice. Therefore, let your quest for relief be satisfied through God.

I understand it is hard to see others getting away with their sins here on Earth. But, they will pay the price after they die. God promises this in Luke 18:7, “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?” For God is a just God and will not allow sins to go unpunished, unless the sinners have repented. If those who sin do not repent here (which includes making it right with you), they will suffer as Christ suffered. Therefore, there is no need for you to get revenge here on Earth for those who have harmed you.
For God’s justice will be far more complete than what you could ever inflict upon
them.

The Time Needed to Change

Trust God’s plan of justice. He knows what He is doing and He will make all things right.
In His wisdom, He allows time for those who sin and make mistakes to have a chance to repent and be forgiven.
He knows many of us will mess up many times in our life. He knows there will be times we go down the wrong path. He hopes we will repent, make it right with the person we hurt and ultimately learn from our mistakes. God loves us and wants us to learn and grow and use Jesus Christ’s atonement to be forgiven.

For example: You have come to a point on your path that you need to cross a great divide. The only way to get across is two sets of rope: one to hold onto and one that you can put your feet on. While crossing this unstable rope, you notice someone on the other side, also crossing. Because the two of you are using the same rope, it makes it very unstable. You find yourself starting to really shake. As a result, the other loses his grip and falls. Would you want God’s justice to be handed to you swiftly and promptly or would you want to be given the chance to say you’re sorry, try to make amends and learn how not to do it again?

We are all here to learn and grow from our mistakes, and say we’re sorry when we have messed up.
Being punished immediately would take away our needed time to reflect and change.
Hopefully, that is what you’ll do. You’ll learn from your sins and mistakes and change. If you don’t, it will not go well for you on the other side.

Repent here or Pay the price there

If you are one of those who have wronged another person, I implore you to repent. Make amends and change, or you will suffer for everything you’ve done to others. You may not pay in this life, but you definitely will in the next. Don’t be fooled by Satan and think if you got away with it here, you will get away with it there. God will not allow any sin to go unpunished. Either you repent and use Christ’s atonement or you will suffer as He did.

Watch out for Satan’s Fiery Darts of Lies!

It is very important to repent and seek forgiveness here on Earth before you die. Once you are on the other side (spirit world) it is very hard to gain that forgiveness from those who you’ve harmed and until you do, you will suffer.

To illustrate a deceased person’s suffering, let me tell you an experience a friend of mine had. One night, as she was sleeping, a presence woke her up. When she opened her eyes and looked upon him, she instantly knew who it was. It was someone who had harmed her earlier in her life and changed her life forever. She was startled to see him because he had been deceased for quite a while. As she looked upon him, she noticed he was drenched in his tears. She realized those were tears of pain, regret, suffering, and of despair.

He finally spoke and begged her forgiveness for the wrongs he had done to her when he was alive. He told her he would continue to suffer in spirit prison until he was forgiven. She could see he was in a state of sorrow and panic. She felt compassion for him instantly.
Forgiving others and obtaining forgiveness is very
real.

The Innocent

Though God does not demand immediate justice here on Earth, He will take care of justice in the next life.
With this in mind, let me explain a truth concerning the innocent.
No matter what has happened to you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or sexually, your spirit will be and has always been protected
. If you were to die today after someone had raped you, do you think you would carry that insult of abuse to the spirit world when it was forced upon you here? Absolutely not. Physically and emotionally, you might have experienced pain here on Earth. But the abuser cannot touch your spirit.

Your innocence will remain as pure as the day you were born. You are of royal birth and God protects the innocent with His might and healing power. In Luke 4:18 it states, “…he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” He will heal those that are bruised by others.

God’s Plan of Mercy

Where there is justice, there has to be mercy.
As God’s justice claims those who have not repented, so will God’s mercy claim the innocent and those that have repented. The innocent who have been harmed by others will have the bands of mercy encircle them and heal their wounds. God will not allow the sinner to go unpunished. So, too, God will not allow the innocent to go unhealed.
Mercy is alive in Christ’s atonement.
The innocent can have hope and faith that God will deal justly with those that hurt them. Through God’s plan of mercy, the heart of the afflicted will be healed, thus bringing relief to a troubled soul.

God’s plan of mercy is so powerful it can pull you out of an eternal Hell and save your life here. For example: let’s say while you and a friend are walking along your path you come across a fork in the road. You can choose to either take the path that looks used often, seems faster, but not as safe, or you can take the path less often used, has a longer road, steeper hills, but looks safe. As you’re deciding, your friend encourages you to take the road less traveled and safer. Despite your friend’s plea to take the safe road, you take the road often traveled because it looks faster. After thirty minutes of walking, you come to a very thin edge along this cliff. Again your friend pleads with you not to go and, though you feel you shouldn’t go as well, you do anyway. As you both are side stepping this edge, the edge starts to crumble. You and your friend know you are both about to fall and die so you cry and ask God for help. You tell God you messed up and your friend is not at fault. Because of God’s plan of mercy, you are both saved because you repented and your friend was innocent.

Repentance

Those who have harmed others and do not want the demands of justice imposed upon them have the bands of mercy extended to them as well, if they repent.
If you come to Jesus Christ and repent with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, you will receive forgiveness through the atonement.

Repentance is three-fold. First you must acknowledge you have done something wrong. Second, you must ask God to forgive you. Third, you must make amends to the one you harmed.

The first two speak for themselves. But the third means you must seek out the one you’ve harmed, asked for forgiveness, and then try to make it right. For example, I will use the analogy I gave of the tight rope. After you saw the other person fall from the tight rope because of the shaking on your end, you must seek that person, tell him you’re sorry and make sure he is okay. If you were to just continue on your way after they fell, you would not gain forgiveness for that mistake—even if you told God you were sorry.

Step three of making amends is very important in obtaining forgiveness. If you do not try to seek the one that you harmed and make it right, then forgiveness from God will not be given to you.

Another important thing to note about repentance is: If you ask God to forgive you on a certain act and then you continue to do that act, you will not obtain forgiveness. For example, let’s say you are bullying others at school and you hurt someone deeply so you decide to seek forgiveness. Then, a couple of weeks later, you bully someone again. Both of those sins would be on your head. Repentance starts with asking for forgiveness from God and those whom you’ve harmed. Forgiveness is extended when God knows we are truly sorry and we do not repeat the act.