• A new personal story (mine) revealed!!

If you’ve read my last post, “Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall” you know we are looking into our past to move forward into our future with potential healing of past hurts, reconciliation in our families, and a chance for some restoration of good things.

So I am following my advice (amazing). I looked in the “Mirror” to see what might still be in my past that I had not dealt with. I remembered that my husband and I had seriously disappointed a person in our family. Basically, there was a funeral we did not go to. It seemed from our point of view that we did the right thing by not going. However, the people who had lost a loved one were very hurt and disappointed.

It took a while for us to swallow our pride over our decision and say that we were sorry that our choice had hurt them. Sadly their response was to call us hypocrites and some other adjectives. After that, I didn’t try again and consequently lost contact.

SOOOO – after some fifteen years – while looking into the “Mirror of Time” for myself, I remembered this unfinished incident. And I decided to make a simple contact and see what might happen. I said something along the line of “Do you think there might be a place in our lives for forgiveness and reconciliation this side of Heaven?” Well, the answer that came back was not what I had hoped for and worse than I could have imagined. The answer was NO! They said the contact immensely saddened them. That we would have to wait for Heaven for a reconciliation, but they blessed us with a hope of goodwill for our family……that was very nice.

I learned again that relationships are not neat, tidy, or easy. They are messy. I was part of an unfixable mess from their point of view. Was the refusal painful? YES. Was I disappointed? YES. Did I think that I tried and now it is their problem (ugly, right)? YES. What did I do then? I asked God for forgiveness in my part of the mess and asked Him to help me not hurt other people. Then I wrote and thanked the person for their time and consideration and gave them back the same blessing that they gave me.

After reading this, I hope you are not discouraged in your desire to look back into the past to hope for a better future. Still, look….I’m glad I did! Always try…you can’t tell what people will do! Whether anything else ever happens over my situation again….is not up to me. However, I opened a window, and perhaps someone will walk through it in the future!

Remember, God is in the business of shining His light on our problems and guiding us through the hard times. He can soften the hardest hearts and change our perspectives…..He did it for me!  Don’t give up …. Hope for the future still lives here!

Love and Grace, Nana Ann