The journey...

Life is in the journey, not the destination, so do what you can and take it one day at a time. Go slow, do it right, and make your changes permanent — then help out others who are where you were.

~Jillian Michaels

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Monday, September 14, 2009

FORGIVE YOURSELF...


THE BIGGEST LOSER SEASON PREMIERE IS 2MORROW STARTING @ 7p CST!!!

You do NOT want to miss it!

"It's all about second chances..."

Don't wait until 2morrow to change your life, make that step today!!!

To keep in pace with the structure of my blog, as usual I will incorporate the verse of the day that is impressed on my heart. In brief, I chose this verse because this season is all about "second chances," and this scripture is about FORGIVENESS. I see a parallel between being given a second chance and being forgiven, freed or released of whatever it is that you may need that second chance for. Whether it be something attempted and failed, something you did wrong and are shown mercy or even having an unfortunate event occur such as tragedy to where you're given something to help pull you from the dark place of despair and get you back to living life - those are ALL examples of "second chances." I love this verse and feel it's incredibly relevant for my life because I have been forgiven of so much and in turn it's caused me to love with a deeper love of mercy and compassion towards others in their weakness and struggle. I allowed myself to get to the EXTREME weight I had reached, I've deeply wounded friends in my past, I've fallen short in MANY areas of life...but, I was given SECOND CHANCES. FORGIVENESS gives people a second chance to make things right - it says, "Hey look, we aren't going to dwell on what was then...I'm letting go of that and I'm hoping for something better now."

As far as weight goes...I think some of us SERIOUSLY need to take a little time out to forgive ourselves. Have you resented yourself because of past choices? Have you found yourself angry for allowing yourself to get to the weight that you are? You may have even felt as though you "hate" yourself because of how much your food choices have cost you in your life and that of your family. You HAVE to love and forgive yourself or else you will become your own worst enemy and lose your self worth.

If God has forgiven you, others have forgiven you...why is it usually so hard for us to forgive ourselves? I'm not just talking weight loss now, is there ANYTHING you are holding un-forgiveness towards YOURSELF over? That's an open question...tell me why YOU think it's hard to forgive yourself? How will you work at letting go and releasing yourself from that prison?

Verse of the day:
Luke 7:47 (The Message)

She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal."

7 comments:

tammi said...

And praise the Lord, we serve the God of Second Chances!! (and third, and fourth, and thirty-seventh... to infinity!!)

Forgiveness of self does seem harder sometimes than forgiveness of others, and yet in some ways, we're much more lenient with ourselves than with others. Weird, eh? In almost every single aspect of life ~ physical and spiritual ~ there is a healthy balance...

...the trick is FINDING IT!!!

Unknown said...

I completely agree with you! Sometimes forgiveness is neccesary for long term success, else we can spend the entire time repeating a cycle of being angry at ourselves and disappointed in ourselves.

Deanna @ The Unnatural Mother said...

Great post! Really insightful, I never thought of forgiveness and weightloss together, and ya know what it does go hand-in-hand, thanks for opening my eyes!

NOTWBTRFLY said...

I think there are several reasons we can't forgive... we are our own worst critics usually. So you get used to mentally building up all your "failures" till eventually, you just can't let go of all that. And if you aren't the kind of person who does that openly, maybe you've gone the opposite way and made excuse after excuse for your actions... "I'm hurting, I'm lonely, I deserve a treat.." whatever you say to make it okay and then you look back and realize what did I do to myself... not the person that left you or fired you or even the good thing that happened that deserved a reward... YOU did this to yourself... and if you take responsibility, then that means excepting the blame... and I think most people don't know how to let it go. That's what I am learning right now. I did this. Me. I have to fix it.

Have a blessed day! said...

I LOVE your posts, they are so inspiring and though provoking. Yes, forgiving myself is the hardest even when I know He forgives me. Thank Heaven (pun-intended!) that we have a forgiving God.

Audrey said...

I love to talk about forgiveness! It brings everything into prespective! When we start to think too much of ourselves, we can think about Calvary and what we had to be forgiven of. When we think too little of ourselves, we can think about Calvary and that Jesus found us worthy of forgiveness. When we don't think it's possible to forgive others or ourself, we can think about Calvary and see a innocent man died so that we could be forgiven and there is never a reason not to forgive someone else. Hmmmm....Pattern. Forgiveness. Calvary. Healing.

Shauna said...

So true my friend, so true! Why is it so dang hard though??? Praise God for second chances.