And so it begins... AGAIN and a few thoughts on Forgiving and Forgetting

You guessed it.... Spring Semester has started, and wow, is it going to be a load!

Yesterday was my first day back, and I have three classes, plus one online class... a total of 10 credit hours. While that may not seem like much, the classes I have are going to involve a ton of reading... a lot of hands on... and I've already seen that it is going to consume much of my time. I have 6 chapters to read by tomorrow between all of these classes. (And I found out in my Anatomy / Physiology class that I will "get to" disect a sheep brain.... UGH!!!) So with that said, I guess I need to finish this post and get started!

But there is something that I am feeling very compelled to post today... so here goes....

A friend recently posted a thread on FB - "Why do people say bad girls are good and good girls are bad?"

Now, I must admit that my initial response to that was - "I've often wondered that myself".... but this morning I was convicted about something.... Who am I to judge who is good and who is bad?

There are girls our there who have made some bad choices, I was one of those girls back in the day, but did that make me a "bad girl"? Hardly, I still did things are were considered good... I did those things all the time. My CHOICES were bad, but at heart, I was not a BAD person.

I was reminded that God chose 'BAD' girls to work through (Rahab) and to use as examples of His Son's ability to grant forgiveness of sin (Mary Magdalene). And for Mary, at the very point her sins were FORGIVEN, I can guarantee that they were not FORGOTTEN by the world. But to Mary, which was more important to eternity..... yep... I hope you got it... it was being forgiven.

So I'm thinking that as we look around us, we shouldn't pretend to be Santa, marking our list either "naughty or nice", I think that we should make an effort to see everyone as a CHILD OF GOD who is loved by Him, regardless of the bad choices they have made. He longs to bring them into his arms and whisper his forgiveness to them.

I am 51 years old, and I am positive that my sins have not been forgotten.... I live with them daily, but just as I know that they are not forgotten by me, or the world, I know that they are FORGIVEN.... and I, for one, am choosing today to NOT be the one to stand in the way of someone else being able to feel God's forgiveness! I don't have a "magic 8 ball" telling me that someone has asked for God's forgiveness, and that they are now "clean".... but I do know a Father who has cleansed me, and I hope that I can somehow be used by Him in a way that will build up those "bad" girls so they will become less focused on what isn't forgotten, and more focused on being FORGIVEN!