We’re giving away a copy of Suzie’s book, so be sure to comment for your chance to win!
Happy Sunday sweet moms! Steph here.
Today, I’m honored to share about Suzie Eller’s new book here at The M.O.M. Initiative. Suzie’s love for the Lord and heart to minister to moms is contagious and I am honored to call her friend.
I was also honored when she asked me to share my story for her new book, The Unburdened Heart ~ Finding the Freedom of Forgiveness.
Many of you sweet moms are allowing the pain of your past or even your current circumstances to hold your heart captive and prevent you from moving forward and becoming the woman God created you to be. Unforgiveness is like a chain around your heart and it’s time to find the freedom that forgiveness gives.
Walking through my own journey of forgiveness was more difficult and more healing than I had anticipated.
Forgiveness is seldom a one time event. It is a journey that brings you to different pockets of pain and shows you the damage that was done and how it effected your life. And then you have to walk through the valley of forgiveness again if you’re going to make your way to the mountain of freedom and healing.
I know the Lord is already using Suzie’s new book to minister to the hearts of people who have struggled with forgiveness, dealing with pain from the past and not being able to walk in the freedom that comes with truly understanding how to forgive.
I highly recommend The Unburdened Heart to everyone who has ever been through anything. Yeah…I recommend it to everyone because it’s one of those books that is a definite MUST READ.
AND REMEMBER…we will be GIVING AWAY A COPY TO ONE BLESSED WINNER.
Comment to enter and the winner will be announced in tomorrow’s post.
Today, I want to share with you some questions and answers Suzie shares about forgiveness that I know will encourage you in your own journey to forgiveness.
1. Why is forgiveness so difficult?
It’s difficult because it involves people and it involves the way we feel. If we could just live in isolation, then maybe we’d never run into a difficult person, or open my heart to love someone and they disappoint, or maybe I’d never feel bad. Which is why many do isolate or retaliate when they are hurt; it makes sense.
But it also traps you, and keeps you stuck, and maybe no one sees that, but it plays out somewhere, whether in your relationships or inside where no one can see.
2. Why are you doing a free online study?
One of the things that I pray that The Unburdened Heart–and our online study–does is to help shift our perspective from “what was, to what can be”.
We know up front that we are going to face head-on some difficult challenges, or that we may crawl over a hurdle that has stood in the way for years, but one of the most powerful meanings of the word forgive is “to leave one place to go to another”.
To leave bitterness for joy.
To leave anger for peace.
To leave being stuck to discovering what God has for you today, rather than what you carried yesterday.
3. What does forgiveness mean? Does it mean just letting someone off the hook for what he/she did?
The foundational meaning is to “cease to feel resentment”. In a sense, we are able to get out of the debt collection business, which is freeing.
But there’s so much more to this word.
When I started my own personal journey to discover the diverse and powerful meanings of this word, I did so because it seemed like people would say something like, “Just forgive”, which only made a hundred more questions come up, like “does it mean they get off the hook?” or “they’ve changed but I can’t forget what they did”.
The deeper I got into this study, the more I realized that forgiveness is important to God, because people are important to God.
In the book, using the power of story and scripture, I share several different multi-layered meanings of this word found in scripture, and all of them lead us to freedom. It might not necessarily fix another person, or make them say they are sorry, or even provide justice that should have taken place, but the door is unlocked and you and I are free and no longer chained to an event, a person, or a time.
4. Why should I forgive, especially when I’ve been hurt badly and/or my offender isn’t sorry for what he/she did?
First, it’s important that we acknowledge that it’s hard to forgive when there’s no remorse, and you long for someone to say they are sorry. I don’t know how many women I’ve talked to that I’ve wrapped my arms around and said, “I wish that hadn’t happened to you. I’m so sorry that it did.”
But there are a lot of walking wounded whose offender may not be sorry, may not be remorseful (maybe they see it a different way, or through their own filter of pain, or maybe they don’t care), and yet this beautiful woman is still tied to that person or that period of time.
When I looked at my beautiful newborn child, I wanted her to have a healthy mom who wasn’t tied to the past, or filled with bitterness. I wanted to put a line in front of me and say, “it stops here”. I wanted my sweet girl to grow up in stability. But if there were cords that still tied me to the past, I was going to struggle to give her that.
It wasn’t easy. I didn’t know what or how to do it way back then. I just knew that for some reason every time I prayed that God would help me give my child something greater, the word forgive seemed to be the most important first step to take.
So, regardless of another person’s willingness or unwillingness, we offer up what we have to God and that might just look like this: God, I have no clue where you are taking me, or what you want me to do, but I’m willing to take this journey. So I offer up my heart to you today, regardless of whether anyone else has signed up for this journey or not.
To me, surrendering to the process is the most incredible act of faith.
5. I thought I forgave the offender, but negative thoughts and emotions still keep coming up. Why is this, and what do I do about it?
When I was in the beginning stages of forgiving, I would let thoughts just pour over my heart.
I thought about what I would say next. I would think about setting a person straight. I would put myself in a good light, and the other person in a negative light. Pretty soon I was in stuck in those thoughts and emotions. It wasn’t a healthy place, because it didn’t do anything to work through theconflict. It didn’t do anything but feed my anger or bitterness.
One day I felt God asking me to leave that unhealthy place.
I promised God that when I went to that unhealthy place where nothing was ever resolved and it kept me stuck, that I’d recognize it as such.
When that took place, it was a good time to look at why I felt the way I did, and if there was anything in my power that I could do. And if not, then how could I invite God into that moment and that feeling, where He could take up residence and fill in the raw places in my heart.
To see a sample of chapter 1 of The Unburdened Heart, click here (Suzie’s site) or click here (PDF of sample).
DON’T FORGET TO COMMENT FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A COPY OF THE UNBURDENED HEART ~ FINDING THE FREEDOM OF FORGIVENESS. COMMENTS OPEN UNTIL WEDNESDAY 3/13/13 AT 6:00 P.M. ~ WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN THURSDAY’S POST.
Suzanne (Suzie) Eller is a Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker and author. She’s written six books, hundreds of articles, and writes devos with Encouragement for Today that reaches over 500,000 women. Suzie is a radio co-host with Luann Prater at Encouragement Cafe Joy FM. She encourages women through two Facebook communities reaching over 20,000 five days a week. She’s been featured on TV and radio such as Focus on the Family, Aspiring Women, 100 Huntley Street, KLOVE, MidDay Connection, The Harvest Show, and many others. Most importantly, she is a wife, mom, and “Gaga” to four beautiful grandbabies. Connect with Suzie at www.tsuzanneeller.com.
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