At my current age of somewhere between 30 and 40, I can argue that I’ve “done a lot” in my life.
If I were to bore you — either orally or via the written word — with all of the “accomplishments,” the full list might be resume-sized. Go me, I guess?
If I may be allowed a little bit of pride, I’m happy over the fact that most of my achievements were reached after one or more people told me that I shouldn’t “do it,” told me I couldn’t “do it,” or just laughed at me.
While these moments can lead us to paths of self-centeredness, there is always going to be a satisfaction in proving people wrong.
I’m guessing a lot of you can join with me in knowing ourselves better than others did and knowing we could do what no one else thought we could.
I’ll pause now and applaud all of you, even if no one else has yet.
I’m happy for us that didn’t give up even though I’m sure we were all encouraged to — what a horrid, but truthful misuse of the word “encouraged” — but here we are.
Forgiveness is a gift
In this time of giving, Christmas, and all of the other holidays going on, let’s not only be happy with what we’ve done but let’s “give back” and give the gift of forgiveness to those who doubted us.
This probably won’t involve a lot of effort because most of these people have probably forgotten us or their actions anyway, but nonetheless, we still remember them so let us remember them in a good way.
This could be a topic unto itself for another writing at another time, but how do we forgive you ask? How do we, especially, forgive those who we may never interact with again, or really, for our own health, safety, and sanity, don’t want to interact with again?
Step one is to always want the best for them.
For those who have hurt us — or in this specific instance, doubted us — beyond just a “living well is the best revenge,” we want them to live well as well.
This can be an excellent start to doing more “as we forgive those who trespass”. When we stew over those who never believed in us, let’s hope that they are doing just as well as we are and pray for them.
We certainly don’t want to celebrate if they are going through a rough time now and we’re doing just fine — even though they didn’t think we would be.
How about another ponderful question?
Would you want to spend time in Heaven with your doubters?
If your answer is “no,” you’ve got some work to do.
Although it’s a hard thing to stomach sometimes, I try to realize the fact that if I am in Heaven and our doubters, debtors, enemies, etc., are in Heaven, they are their best selves and we are our best selves.
All of the weaknesses that were between us will be gone.
Wanting to be with your doubters in Heaven is a forgiveness.
I believe in you
To those who are still doubted, I’ve got your back.
To those who want to aim high, take a chance, do something new, do something because it’s best for you (and morally good), I do not doubt you.
You know yourself better than anyone.
Let’s all do a better job believing in each other.
Can we humble ourselves to the fact that someone’s idea sounding ridiculous to us might be a sign that we are among the ridiculous and not our neighbor with the idea?
What about taking the time and asking someone more about the thing that we doubt about them? Wouldn’t they have more information than we do?
I do not doubt you. I believe in you. You got this.
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.