Passing Harmlessly

My father in law once gave me a great rule of thumb for determining whether I had truly forgiven someone and had moved on. It goes like this:

When you think of whoever it is who has once offended you, does he pass harmlessly through your mind?

I didn't think much of this little ditty at first, but I have come to love it! I use it often as an indicator as to how I am really doing in my relationships.

I have a tendency to get offended pretty easily (a trait I am working on diligently). I am very loyal to my friends, which means that anyone who hurts a friend has also hurt me (I know....not the right way to be...again working on it). Once someone has offended or hurt me, I kind of keep that person on my "bad" list for ever....( I KNOW! Not the right thing again!)

But when my father in law gave me this little trick, I started thinking about individual people and surprisingly there were few people who did not go through my mind harmlessly. There were a couple, though. I began committing those folks to prayer and as I would periodically test myself, I would find that they began to pass through harmlessly! God had been doing a work in me!

I have now discovered, not that I don't get offended or hurt, but that I work on it quickly to get them to pass harmlessly. It certainly has made my life easier!