In his book Grace Matters, Chris Rice reflects on the close of his nearly 17-year investment into transformative friendship with Spencer Perkins. He writes, “From Mississippi, I would take the hope that people can grow and change, that descriptions of pain or joy at any one moment are only snapshots that only history really counts.”…
Confessing the painful memories and exposing the root cause will bring healing physically and psychologically. The author gives examples of people who had painful memories, but found healing when they were shared with Christ. Christ is the focus, not the painful memories. As we forgive, Christ will draw us close to himself in a deeper and richer relationship. The author stresses that if we are not aware of a painful root memory;…
Nicholas Wolterstorff had the misfortune of losing his 25 year old son in an accident. Although he was well aware of God love and faithfulness the loss left him empty for a long time, searching for a real reason why he has departed from him so soon. When he has just started living. Time has passed and no questions were answered until at the end surrendering to the glory of God he found hope in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.…
to the readers, “You, who have just read this sad and tragic episode in my life...and ask yourself…
The main idea of this article was how to train the church community to instill the forgiving model. One of those ideas of how to instill the forgiving model was for forgivers to learn from their forgiveness and understand one must forgive because they have been forgiven for something themselves. As forgiveness is given and received both recipients, especially the forgiver now see that we all live in a world full of brokenness yet we still yearn to be restored into full fellowship with one another.…
Once I saw my father almost lose his life for a lady he didn’t know. These are the kind of experiences that make me surprised he lived till this age. As people entered this place today, many walked up to me offering their condolences and mentioning all the various things that my father had done for them. Some said he was a brother to them while others hardly knew him. That’s the charm about my father. You didn’t have to know him before he sacrificed something for you. I used to dislike that side of him as he hardly had time for me. It wasn’t until we came to America that…
We can learn about this short story the values of trust and respect for our elders. In fact, Hughes believed he would see Jesus…
Cooper-White, Pamela. "Forgiveness: grace, not work." Journal For Preachers 32, no. 2 (January 1, 2009): 16-23. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed April 5, 2012).…
“This story will lift you up and make your life a little better, and then it will fill you with dread and break your heart bit by bit. Go. Read…
The Nineteen-Forties was a very patriarchal era. The father was the head of the house and his life’s works were passed down to his sons. A strong relationship between a man and his sons was crucial to maintaining a healthy household. Once the relationship began to deteriorate, the entire family unraveled. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman displays how the relationship between Willy and his two sons creates the downfall of the Loman family. The relationship is constantly changing throughout the story. Biff and Happy idolize and have nothing but love for their father when they are children, but when they grow up they realize how their father failed to prepare them for the real world.…
I never really understood the meaning of forgiveness. When people hurt me or treat me badly I always thought the best way to handle it is to hold it in. I never showed anger on the outside but just kept it all in. Instead, I let it boil inside of me. My kind act toward those who hurt me was a shield from my pain. Most of my kind act was at my mother. I blamed my birth mother for every relationship I have ever been in that ended with my hurting the guy or me thinking I am just going to be like my mother and leave him for the next person. Over the years, her actions and mishaps became the victim for my own actions. The fact that I have not yet become a divorcee like her was justification for her being irresponsible, dishonest, and ungrateful. Throughout the years of struggle, dysfunctional relationships, and little to no relationship, I hardly took responsibility for anything that I had done. I laid all my relationship troubles on my birth mother. I call her my birth mother because I never grew up with her but I have met her from time to time. She gave me to my dad when I was seven years old because of another man. I blame my relationship trouble on her because she never had a solid relationship for me to learn from. She…
As I fell between my church life and school life, I entered into the cruel distractions presented to me by those I attended school with. I continued to live my life filled with sin and disregard for God, even though he stood by my side through all my betrayal. As God stood by my side, so did the members of my church, who loved me through it all.…
Every day we are given a fresh start; another chance to move forward in our lives and accomplish the things we thrive to achieve day to day. A new day can also liberate us from our past mistakes and provide us with a chance to change our ways. We are all faced with misery and misfortune at points in our lives, some more than others. We must recognize that it is not the burden in itself that shapes who we are, but how well or how poorly we deal with the difficulties. Sometimes misfortunes can be seen in a negative light; because it seems unjust, therefore we response in a negative matter, and become negligent to change. Overcoming tragic events is what truly counts, for we are meant to live happily and in acceptance that there are things that we cannot change. In many cases, individuals seem to feel as though they’ve lost an amount so great that they are unable to free themselves of the pain. This perspective often leads to further suffering. A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahou and Kiss Me by Andrew Pyper demonstrate a loss of identity, negligence towards communication, and eventually leading to the destruction of a relationship.…
“What stories can do, I guess, is make things present. I can look at things I never looked at. I can attach faces to grief and love and pity and God. I can be brave. I can make myself feel again. 'Daddy, tell the truth, 'Kathleen can say, 'did you ever kill anybody? ' And I can say, honest, 'Of course not. 'Or I can say, honestly, 'Yes.”…
The initial reaction to the short story is one of awe. How much truth can one woman show the world by telling a story…