[:en]THE SHEPHERD’S CORNER

In his book, How to Live Through a Bad Day, Pastor Jack Hayford shares a simple formula to live through a bad day, “begin by forgiving everyone who seems to be trying to ruin your life.” He explains that bad days are the “results of things that happen, and things that happen are the results of what people do.” He, then, lists several things that people can do to ruin our days such as misunderstand us, hurt us, forget or neglect to do something, etc.

What do we do when people do these things to us? Pastor Hayford suggests that we forgive them. The question is then, “How do we forgive them?” He proposes that to “learn the grace of forgiveness you need to find a starting point” and that starting point is what Jesus Our Lord taught us at the cross, which is to look at them and say, “They don’t know what they are doing.” Something wonderful happens when we say that—anger subsides! On the contrary if we insist that people “should have known,” anger goes up.

We know life is not perfect and are mindful of the fact that none of us is perfect. But, we still expect life to be perfect and people to be as perfect; hence, they won’t commit mistakes or malicious acts. No wonder when they do, we get angry; we forget that neither life nor people are perfect. Worse yet, we no longer remember that occasionally we, too, make mistakes and do evil things.

True forgiveness, Pastor Hayford tells us, “springs from gratitude to God for His forgiving me.” We all have received forgiveness and we all have done things that disappointed both God and others. We have misunderstood others, hurt others, forgotten or neglected to do something for others. But, to our surprise, God and others have been so gracious to us. The least we can do is to pass on the grace.

Pastor Paul[:id]THE SHEPHERD’S CORNER

In his book, How to Live Through a Bad Day, Pastor Jack Hayford shares a simple formula to live through a bad day, “begin by forgiving everyone who seems to be trying to ruin your life.” He explains that bad days are the “results of things that happen, and things that happen are the results of what people do.” He, then, lists several things that people can do to ruin our days such as misunderstand us, hurt us, forget or neglect to do something, etc.

What do we do when people do these things to us? Pastor Hayford suggests that we forgive them. The question is then, “How do we forgive them?” He proposes that to “learn the grace of forgiveness you need to find a starting point” and that starting point is what Jesus Our Lord taught us at the cross, which is to look at them and say, “They don’t know what they are doing.” Something wonderful happens when we say that—anger subsides! On the contrary if we insist that people “should have known,” anger goes up.

We know life is not perfect and are mindful of the fact that none of us is perfect. But, we still expect life to be perfect and people to be as perfect; hence, they won’t commit mistakes or malicious acts. No wonder when they do, we get angry; we forget that neither life nor people are perfect. Worse yet, we no longer remember that occasionally we, too, make mistakes and do evil things.

True forgiveness, Pastor Hayford tells us, “springs from gratitude to God for His forgiving me.” We all have received forgiveness and we all have done things that disappointed both God and others. We have misunderstood others, hurt others, forgotten or neglected to do something for others. But, to our surprise, God and others have been so gracious to us. The least we can do is to pass on the grace.

Pastor Paul[:]