By Linda Ruggles and Melody Heal—
God will shake you up when you least expect it! I remember the day I woke up and checked my Facebook page. Isn’t that what we all do these days? Wondering why I wasn’t seeing news from one of my dearest friends I clicked on her page and found she had “defriended” me. I also remember thinking, what has this world come to when a friend of over 25 years can “defriend” you? Then the questions started; what happened, what did I do, why wouldn’t she just tell me something was wrong? The big question, why?
I cried, I prayed, I cried, and then I wrote a card and sent it through snail mail. This seemed the perfect time to actually use a pen, paper and stamp. Even though I had no idea what the problem was, I heard God say, apologize and let me work. And so I did.
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Several days after the note was sent an email came; “Thank you for writing. I have things to work out and I can’t talk to you for a while, and I have no idea for how long.” There was no explanation as to what had happened or what I had done. I cried, I prayed, I cried, and prayed some more.
For almost six months, I prayed daily for healing to our relationship. I let go and let God handle it, but I never stopped asking for healing. I missed my friend. I missed our times of praying for our kids and for each other. Was she OK? Did she think of me as I thought of her? Would the empty feeling ever leave? There were days that were harder than others. Days when I truly needed my friend to pray with me, but God was faithful to get me through those days.
In speaking with a new friend, a very young Christian who was working through issues of his own with broken relationships, I was able to share my “defriended” story. He asked me what I would do if she ever came back and asked to be my friend again. Without a moment hesitation I said, “I would welcome her back with open arms.” That was hard for him to understand, but I explained it is what we are called to do as those who love our forgiving Heavenly Father. At that moment, I truly felt there would be healing and I would be able to show my young friend how God works.
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Not more than one week later, the email came asking for forgiveness. Of course the tears flowed. I praised God for His faithfulness. I shared the news with my new young friend and I rejoiced that my sweet companion of many years was back in my life. In the meantime, my new acquaintance saw the joy I had and understood what healing could mean. This resulted with Him beginning a journey to find his own mother and forgive her for what she did to him as a young boy.
God’s timing is always perfect! If we simply let go and let Him, He will always keep His promises!
Listening raptly to Linda, one of my tried and true friends and prayer partner of 13 years, unfold the phases of this story brought assured confidence once again in God’s word. Since Linda believed the promise Luke 6:37, “Forgive and you will be forgiven” (NKJ), she reaped the blessing and benefits of a restored relationship. Her willingness to surrender her pride and hurt while offering a sincere apology restored life and love and healing to her cherished friendship of many years. Is there someone today you need to call or mail a pen and pencil note to, offering a sincere heart of forgiveness? Why not do it now! God’s promise is waiting for you.
Originally posted on: My Purpose Now.
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2 thoughts on “A Sincere Heart of Forgiveness”
FB isn’t a part of my life nor is other social media; for me, it’s such a time suck and that time is better spent on other things. Every few months I visit Pintrest and can always learn something there.
My “friend” of 40+ years chose to drop our friendship 3 days after I buried my husband. She knew Dave was battling cancer, she knew he’d died (I’d e-mail, written and called her, leaving a message) and, basically, her letter said, “I’ve moved on and am no longer the person I was 40 years ago. I’ve “come out of the closet” and am a liberal; you wouldn’t understand.”
My letter to her said, “neither Dave nor I understood conditional friendship and we knew her political leanings and considered them a part of her but not who she, essentially, was. I finished with this quote? “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things love.”
Should she ask forgiveness, yes, but no, to friendship; she can never be trusted.
Forgiveness is awesome!
I’d worked with a “zany” Christian woman for ten years; I was quite close to her. She attended the home birth of our second son, which is a “close friend” in a lot of books! But she apparently went through “some stuff”. Her marriage was difficult. I can only guess what might have been disturbing her. One day, she un-friended me on MySpace. (It was that long ago, when I even had a “myspace”!)
I prayed for months. I didn’t know why she had “shunned” me. It wasn’t just Myspace. Over the years, she’d regularly went off on me about my “style” as a Christian. She would say cutting and fairly mean things to me (maybe priding herself that she knew best?). I still tried to find a happy meeting ground; I wanted to live at peace with everyone, as much as it was possible. (As the Bible tells us to.)
So I prayed some more. I felt God telling me to make a kind gesture. Of course, I had a long list of reasons why SHE should make the gesture. I had never done anything wrong, haha! But perhaps there had been some “sin of omission”. Not that I had done anything. But maybe it was what I hadn’t done? So I wrapped up some goodies for this friend, with a copy of my new cookbook, and mailed it to her. (She was out of state by now.)
She received the present, and seemed appreciative. The gift (olive branch) seemed to snap her out of it. If she’d been holding a grudge against me, it seemed to melt away.
I don’t have the same relationship with this friend that I’d had originally, but I don’t have the cold relationship we had for awhile either. I highly recommend going out of our way to be nice, even to an “enemy” (or an “unfriend”). They may just need a hug. We need to continue to love!