Letting go

  So, you've been hurt and it's not fun, trust me, I know. These past couple of weeks I have been going back and forth and up and down with everything trying to understand how to move past being hurt. Well, it's time to deal with the damage. 

 "Staying hurt or offended is a choice... just like moving forward is a choice..." -Alberto Bello 

  So how do I deal with the damage?

       I let it go. 

  Yes I am VERY aware how much easier said than done that is but the reality is, I can not move forward if I am looking back. 

  Mark 12:30-31 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." 

      Love God. Love people. 

  People will hurt you. People will fail you. People will do you wrong and everything in you will scream "hate them, tear them down, allow them to feel the pain they caused you" but that small pure voice will whisper "love them".

  How do we love those who clearly didn't love us?

      Forgiveness.

  But "forgiveness does not mean friendship."(Alberto Bello... again lol) We are called to forgive but we are not called to be friends. We are called to love, even our enemies. There are moments where it would be MUCH healthier for you to allow people to walk out of your life and that doesn't mean throw knives in their back as they turn away, it just means allow your heart to forgive and move on from what they may have done. 

  I sat in my bitterness and declared "I can forgive but I won't forget" and there I thought I would find healing in that. My foolish heart thought that I could move past the pain while the past still consumed my thoughts. 1 Corinthians 13:5 "...it keeps no record of wrongs." I am not showing love if I am not letting go of the past.

     I just need to let it go. 

  I can sit here and write out that "if you sit in bitterness that's them winning blah blah blah" but I don't want to encourage you through this with the motive of there being a winner and a loser. Dealing with the damage is not about who comes out on top, it's about your heart and your character through it all. 

  What is done is done. God has called me to walk out a certain life and I will not let the pains of yesterday continue to hold me back.

  So here I am, picking myself back up, forgiving, forgetting, and loving through the heartache. You are not alone, people are being hurt by people every second, so I encourage you to talk to someone who will speak life into you, because we aren't made to walk through life alone, so don't walk through a season of pain alone.