Forgiving Your Parents ( Father's Day Edition)

We wrestle with the hard question of forgiving your parents when Scripture says to honor them but your history says you are hurt. I share my own journey from resentment to fond memories, then lay out practical steps to heal, set boundaries, and let God fill the gaps your family could not. 

• the tension between honoring parents and acknowledging real harm 
• why God’s comfort is meant to be paid forward to others 
• how rigid, universal application of Scripture misses nuance and causes damage 
• defining forgiveness as releasing resentment and letting go of “what could have been” 
• why forgiveness is not forgetting, excusing, or minimizing the offense 
• knowing your parent’s capacity for conversation before confronting issues 
• researching a parent’s upbringing to humanize without excusing 
• reparenting yourself, doing therapy or counseling, and addressing inner child wounds 
• keeping healthy distance and setting boundaries while still showing honor 
• how moving out can reduce friction and create space for healing 
• turning parental inadequacy into deeper trust in God as the perfect Father 
• choosing consistent love and focusing on any good to soften the heart over time 

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Transcript

Welcome And Why This Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello everybody, welcome to the Light of Life podcast. I'm your host, Ritendo. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you are new, welcome. Thank you for joining me again to those who are returning listeners, returning subscribers. I appreciate you so much. Today we're talking about a very relevant topic, which is forgiveness. I know we spoke about that last week, but today we're talking about forgiving your parents. Yes, it's it's it's something that's so, so relevant. And in the spiritual, I don't want to say the spiritual space, but the church space, it's something that's very difficult to talk about because how do you reconcile what scripture says? Honor your mother, your father, and at the same time, I have these feelings of unforgiveness and resentment and all this history of what has happened to me. So we're talking about that today. Just a recap of what we spoke about last week. We were speaking about forgiveness from the position of someone who has earned or who is receiving the forgiveness. What is the posture that you are supposed to have as someone who has been forgiven, as someone who has received mercy? And if you haven't watched that one, I think it will be good for you to go back as well, even after watching and listening to this podcast. So before I delve deeper into the podcast today, I just want you to know the purpose of the Light of Life movement and the purpose of the Light of Life podcast. This podcast exists to paint a realistic picture of a true walk of faith. Aside from the religious, preconceived ideas that you may have, maybe what you grew up being told, you're supposed to walk in such a way, in such a way that you felt like was unattainable. I'm here to let you know that it can happen in this day and age. You can walk with God and it can be a beautiful journey. And if you continue following us on this podcast, it's going to help you a lot in your walk of faith. Whether you're beginning or you want to continue and take your spirituality to another level, this is the place to be.

Father’s Day Triggered Old Memories

SPEAKER_01 2:53

On Sunday was Father's Day, and that's kind of what prompted me to speak about this because we had a very life-changing, very edifying program for us where the elderly fathers and father figures in our church were brought up and they were given some very comfortable chairs on the podium or on the pulpit, on the stage. I don't know what you would call it. And we got a chance to ask them questions, to tap into their wealth of wisdom. And it was interesting. Very, very interesting. And it triggered something for me in a good way, though. I know Sarah, Pastor Sarah, she has a sermon called Triggered to Glory. I was triggered, but in a good way. Triggered to glory. I began to think about my own dad, and he passed away last year, by the way. He had had a stroke, and he was in in he was not well for four years prior to his passing, but I found myself smiling and having all these fond memories of my dad. And I began to ask myself, like, is this me? Because some some years ago, 15, 20 years ago, I would have never guessed that I would have been having fond memories of my dad and having nothing but love for him. So why I chose to speak about it, I would want to help someone. Perhaps you are in a situation right now where you're not in good books with your parents or you're in a difficult relationship with your parents and you are struggling to reconcile. You're constantly condemning yourself because you'd say the scripture says I'm supposed to honor my parents, but I feel this way. How do I cross that bridge? How do I even begin to live out? Because scripture cannot be broken. Like the Lord Jesus said, Scripture can never be broken. Everything that is said in there, if you are a believer, we need to do our best to apply it prayerfully with his help, and that's where my job comes in. That's where I'm coming to help you to apply it to your daily life. How did I come to a point where I felt disdain, I won't lie to you, for my father. Some years back, many, many years ago, and now I'm thinking about him and I'm smiling. I recall all the wonderful moments. That's what, even before his death, it's not because he passed away, even before. The very last time we saw each other, he gave me multiple never-ending kisses, and we were hugging each other, embracing each other, farewell almost. How do you get from a point of if I never see him in my life again, I wouldn't mind to a point of fondly thinking about someone or your parent.

Comforted To Comfort Others

SPEAKER_01 6:29

The scripture says in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3 and 4, praise be to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles, so that we listen to this, we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort that God has given to us. And I love what the scripture is saying because you need to know that when God comforts you, He is our comforter. But it's not so that you're just you just feel better, so that you have butterflies and you feel lighter, and you're like, ooh, oh my God, I feel good. It's an equipping, it's reciprocal. Whatever he gives to you, he expects you to pay it forward and to give it to someone else. If it's healing, physically healing you, you need to play a part in healing others. I love people who experience something, and I'm not only talking about spirit healing, I'm talking about even physical, medically finding a solution. I know people who've lost maybe children to suicide, they start suicide foundations. I know people who've lost people to cancer, they start cancer research foundations. So you're healed so you can heal, you pay it forward. The Greek word actually comfort that is used there is the word paraclesis. And for those that know, the Holy Spirit is called the what the paraclete, parakletos, the comfort. That comfort is to strengthen, to encourage. So, like I said, God is helping you so that you can help someone else. If it's mental healing, physical healing, spiritual healing, you're not being healed so that you feel better and you just show off your healing. I know people who've been given wealth and they cannot discern that this excess of wealth that I've been given is to pay it forward. They go on Instagram and they show you their trips in in Dubai and their flights and their yacht trips, but they forget that they were given an excess so they can also pay it forward. Luke 22, verse 31 to 32, the Lord speaks to Peter and he said, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented, listen to this, and turned to me again, you will strengthen your brothers. So finally, when you have moved on and you have conquered whatever you were fighting, you need to know why I have conquered. Part of our organization's work is youth ministry, youth outreach. And I do so, I go around and I share my story with young people. Because when I ask the Lord, why do you spare me? There are many people who've been through the things that I've been through, and they never survived it. And the answer that I got indirectly was I was saved to be a blessing to others, to warn others, to help others, to strengthen others. So that's why I'm sharing my story with you

Why Rigid Scripture Use Hurts

SPEAKER_01 10:36

today. A lot of people make this mistake. I grew up in a very religious church environment where people would impose scriptures on you. The scripture says that there was a famous scripture that was circulated in that denomination where the apostle Paul was talking about do not braid hair. And of course, we're black women, we braid our hair. And from time to time, there would come a minister or someone who would read that scripture, and then they would say, That means you shouldn't braid your hair. And it's a common thing in the church. So we want to try to close that gap between what scripture says and practically what's happening on the ground. This is a very real issue, and that's why people end up turning away from faith sometimes because they feel like the standard is unattainable. But that's not true. I love scripture so much because I know there are timeless truths in there. The word of God is unchanging. In fact, the Lord Jesus said scripture cannot be broken. So that means there must be something that we are missing. And it is our job, not only as pastors, clerics, but also as a believer, I think it is your duty. If, say, your pastor or your deacon or your leader or your elder is not breaking these things down, you need to take the initiative and dig into scripture and pray and fast if you have to, so that you close that gap. People forget the aspect of nuance. They want to apply scriptures universally and just grab scripture as it is and impose it on human behavior. It doesn't work. People fail incredibly, they fail dismally, and it's very difficult to get up after you find yourself failing. Can you sift a sermon? If you are in church and your pastor, your leader is preaching, do you have that ability of discerning that, okay, this is for me and this is for someone? Because remember, the preacher is preaching to a crowd of 50 people, a crowd of a hundred people. He's preaching a universal message, but you need to consider the nuances, the different particular applications of that message. For example, he can preach that God hates divorce, but you know that my husband is molesting my two children at home. Are you going to just take that word as it is and impose it and let your children suffer? Or your husband is abusing you physically, mentally, and you're just going to take that and apply it to yourself? No. Something very unique happened to me last week when I was preparing to go to church. I had woken up earlier, said my prayers, but that morning, the first thing when I woke up, the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart, he said, pray for the service. Or he had some other prayer request that he gave me before. But then at the end, he said, Now that you're done praying for this and this and this, I want you to pray for the service. That everything that is meant for you, you won't miss any word, any admonishment, any advice, any answer that is meant for you in the service. That's how you're supposed to go into a church service. Don't just grab everything. You need to have the ability to sift what is meant for you, or even how to apply it to you. Now, whether you like it or not, the family structure has changed. Okay, we now have child-headed families, families that don't have father figures, mother figures at all. We have childless couples by choice sometimes. They say we want to focus on our careers, we don't want to have children. How do you deal with couples and families like that? There are many more children being born out of wedlock than before. They are same-sex couples, children who are born to same-sex couples. How do you apply the family gospels to these ever-evolving family structures? So, in order for the word to stay relevant prayerfully, I believe it is the role of the church, the magisterial teachings themselves to address these families that are changing. Like I mentioned before, scripture says, honor your parents, and scripture cannot be broken. But practically, what's happening on the ground is as parents, we hurt our children. I know for a fact I've done many things to harm my children, inadvertently, of course, because I love them dearly. Your parents have done things to hurt you, they've done things that are still even affecting you to this day as an adult. How do you reconcile that? That the Bible is telling me to honor my parents. But at the same time, if I'm being realistic, we are psychological beings. We have emotions, we feel things when they are done to us. So how do we handle that? And I always mention this in this podcast that you cannot ignore the fact that you're a psychological being. But I want you to understand the reason why I mention it is not so that you can yield to it and you can indulge it and say, oh, I'm emotional, oh, I'm a psychological being, I've got mental issues. That's not why I'm saying you should consider it. Why I'm pointing it out, my goal in acknowledging your physical side is that so you accept your God-given design. You need to be aware of who you are so you can deal with it. You can only control what you know and what you acknowledge and what you understand. When you get a new TV set or when you get a new game, when you get a new gadget, a pressure, ooh, especially a pressure cooker, you need to read these instructions. Because you run the risk of blowing the house or blowing your face up if you don't read the instructions. I say that I remember we had a podcast before where we spoke about sexuality. People do not want to acknowledge that they are sexual beings, they want to act like they are Mother Mary, they can conceive the virgin birth, blah, blah, blah. And they don't want to come to terms with the fact that they have sexual desires. And because they don't want to come to terms with that, they end up falling into traps that could have been prevented had they simply acknowledged that you know what, I'm a sexual being, I'm not going to put myself in situations where I can be tempted. So, in the same way, you need to know you have emotions. The psyche exists. You think in certain ways and patterns, and you need to understand yourself in order to control it. When you accept your God-given design, it's only empowering you so you can do that which scripture says you should do. You should never despise your humanity or your flesh or your soul or your emotions. Never. It was given for you so you can use it. Our Lord Jesus Christ came here in the flesh, by the way. That's why we profess it even in our creeds that he came here in the flesh. I believe that Jesus came and he died in the flesh. Because you know there is a heresy that says, oh, he didn't actually die. He only pretended, he didn't actually come in the flesh, he only pretended. He did. He came in the flesh and he dealt with everything that we dealt with. He confessed that, oh, my soul is deeply troubled when he was about to be executed, crucified. He confessed that my soul, I'm troubled. Even before he wept for Jerusalem, he wept at Lazarus' uh death after Lazarus' death to show you that he is human. Even the scripture says he is touched by the feelings of our infirmities. So that's why I want you to acknowledge that this these things happen. Scripture says, honor your father and your mother, but you are a psychological human being, your feelings can be hurt. So, anyway, let's define

What Forgiveness Really Means

SPEAKER_01 20:14

first. Let's start by defining forgiveness because a lot of people don't know what true forgiveness is. There have been a lot of lies and a lot of different teachings that have gone before us that have made it so difficult or seem unattainable. So, psychologists in general they define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance towards a person who has harmed you. And this is regardless of whether they are actually deserving of your forgiveness. That's according to psychologists. I like this definition. This was from Oprah, the Oprah show some years back. She says forgiveness is letting go of the hope that things could have been any different. That's the main powerful reason why a lot of people fail to forgive their parents because they feel like you should have bought me enough books. That's why I didn't do well in school. If we had enough food to eat, I could have concentrated better in school. Or I wouldn't have been pregnant before wedlock because I was hungry. That's why I ended up being promiscuous. Or if you had worked hard enough, I would have a house right now. You would have left me an inheritance. If you had emotionally nurtured me more, I would have felt safe as a child. You're still holding on. On to what could have been. But what you need to do is you need to accept that it has happened to you. Not that it was right. But whether you like it or not, it has happened to you. Maybe they could have even abused you physically, beaten you to a pulp. And you need to just accept that it has happened. There's nothing I can do about it. And that I believe is the beginning of forgiveness. It might not be the true, full definition of forgiveness, but it's the beginning. Another thing you need to understand is that forgiveness doesn't mean that you now have to gloss over or deny the seriousness of an offense against you. That's not what we're saying. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you have to forget, or it doesn't mean that you're condoning or excusing the actions of the person that has hurt you or harmed you. You're just making a conscious decision. Now I'll give you a perfect example. I remember as a teenager, I told you 15, 20 years ago, I was in a state of debilitating unforgiveness towards my dad. There's nothing that I remember just thinking, ugh, this is just horrible for me. It was affecting my school. It was affecting our family life at home. And I was just, I didn't know what to do. We were at a camp meeting, and a friend of mine who was there with me, and she was like, Don't you want to see the pastor? And I said, Okay, fine, I'll go. And this is the first issue that I thought, you know what, let me speak to the pastor. He was my pastor as well. We went and I told him, I'm really struggling with unforgiveness for my dad and him leaving us, and we were in this situation. It was polygamy, and it was a very complicated situation. Our family is a very complicated situation, and I felt like I was born into it, and somehow I'm being caught in between issues of people that have nothing to do with me, and I felt like I had to take sides, and it was just a complicated situation. And he said something that was very stern, but it really helped me. He said, You're a teenager, and you should never try to enter or insert yourself in your parents' bedroom. And those words stuck with me. I haven't seen him since it was a long time ago, but I never forgot. Everyone is familiar with Joyce Meyer's story, how she was molested for a number of years. I think ever since she can remember she had been abused sexually by her own biological father. Just sit with that for a second. How traumatizing is that? And forgiveness. She was able to forgive him. She led her own father to the Lord. Now that's forgiveness, somebody. But every time she always talks about it, she always draws lessons from it. So forgiveness is not forgetting at all. What I found is there is a generational gap though between this generation and those that came before us. If I want to draw maybe a specific distinction, I would say between starting from the millennials, and there is a huge generational gap with maybe the boomers. And I remember watching conversation, it was so evident it was Bishop T. D. Jakes and his daughter Sarah. And the bishop, he was saying that we need to forgive. And I saw Pastor Sarah, her face changed like immediately. And she was saying, talking about toxic parents and the new trend of, you know, people who are talking of, who are acknowledging rather, that they are hurt by their parents' actions. And we shouldn't just gloss over that. We have to bring those discussions to the fore and deal with them instead of just applying scripture in a rigid format that ends up even doing more harm than good. So coming back, if this is true, that there is a gap between what is said in scripture and what is practically happening on the ground. Why would scripture tell me to forgive? That's the question. And I'm here just to let you know. In fact, today I want you I want to help you to bridge that gap, like I said, so that you know that scripture cannot be broken. And there are timeless truths and timeless principles that you can even apply to this day. It's not irrelevant. So I would encourage you first.

Practical Steps To Forgive Parents

SPEAKER_01 27:37

This is my own way that I found healing. Remember, we started by saying, because I've been comforted, I want to also extend the same knowledge to someone else so they can find help. Maybe the first thing I would encourage you to do is to know your parent. Know your parent, know your guardian. Are they the type to want a conversation, to receive a conversation? Because there's some parents that don't really want to have any form of conversation. They view it as confrontation, disrespect. So if you would want to move forward by way of a conversation or discussion, maybe with a mediator, you know, the normal way you would do it or in therapy, you need to know your parents. If they're not the kind of person to receive that, I wouldn't advise bringing attention to it. You need to also discover if they are a parent that is open to conversation, how do you begin to broach the discussion in a way that does not raise temperatures or maybe upset them even further? But some conversations I feel like they're necessary, especially if maybe if the behavior is maybe harming your marriage or harming your children. And how do you handle a situation like that? It's very tricky, but I believe if you come to it prayerfully, you might get a resolution. Another thing that I would want you to do in your journey to forgiving your parents, I want you to really diligently research their upbringing, consider how they were raised, and I tell you, it's going to help you to humanize your parents. A lot of times you feel like, no way. A parent should do this, they should do this, and it's true they should. But remember, there's no manual to parenting. You come into this thing winging it, and you you pray that you get it right. You read scripture, yes. But like I said, the family is constantly changing. Maybe when you started parenting, it was the two of you, and then you split up with your husband, or the other party died, or something happened that made your family an unconventional family, and it became difficult to apply some of these principles. I know when I looked at my dad's parents and the family where he came from, when I look at both my parents where they came from, I'm still affected, of course, by the grievances that I have, but it helps me a lot to humanize and say, you know what? Given where they're coming from, they have done so much better than what they were taught. My dad, I don't believe he even had a relationship, a personal relationship with his dad. I don't believe that. And I don't want to air out some of the family drama that went on, but I tell you, when I was told and I learned and I did my research, I got to even understand the formation of him as the kind of parent that he was. I had to look, did he have a good example or not? And also it, I think it plays into how you view your parenting. I know my spiritual father, when he describes his encounter with his biological father, if it's the this generation that was getting the treatment that he got from his biological father, I promise you it would have been abuse, I'm being abused, but he embraces that. So I think it also has a lot to do with your perspective. Was your parents doing what they were doing out of love? You have to consider that. When they were being hard on me, were they doing what they were doing inadvertently? Were they doing it deliberately, out of love to teach me a lesson? You need to consider all those things, and it helps you to humanize them. Some of the things that my dad did, he did out of habit, he did out of sometimes malice, I won't lie. And then some of the things he did, he did out of ignorance. Some of the things that he did, he did out of love. It was his way of showing love. So I have to understand that. Very responsible. And they would have nice home-cooked, hearty meals. And I remember we didn't even have a nanny at the time. I was a young child going to school, uh, probably 10 or 11 years old, and I would have to come home. I was the first one to come back home, and I would have to make my own lunch. Sometimes it was just a sandwich with, you know, just roughly made, because I never knew how to make a real meal. So afterwards, I would go to their house either to do homework and play, and then I would see the mother would have prepared a very carefully curated menu, and it would smell fresh and it would be prepared with love, and they would be laughing. And of course, they would offer me some food, but because you know, I never out of just good, I don't know if it's good manners, but what I had been taught, I would say, no, no, no, no. But I would watch them eat. I didn't want the food, but I wanted the family. I wish, like, you know, why isn't my family this way? My parents have to work and I'm alone and I have no one. I felt that, but I've had to let go of that because I've realized that, you know what, this is my life. This is how I was brought up. This is the family that God chose to bless me with. And I embraced that. Now in my adult years, but it was difficult when I was going through it. So I let go of that fantasy of ah, I should have had a family. It may seem impossible or maybe like a fantasy, but you need to reparent yourself, go back to that inner child, go back to those inner expectations, do the work, either in therapy, in counseling, go to a retreat, but find a way to release that childhood's trauma. Do the necessary work, never leave it unattended. Because a lot of people have those feelings and they let them just fester, and they give a feigned forgiveness, rather. They give a feigned picture of forgiveness, but they're just ignoring an issue that is there. I wouldn't advise you to do that because it's going to come out in ways that you don't want it to come out, either to your children or to your spouse or to your family members, your co-workers, it will come out. So you need to make sure that you deal with it. Where necessary, I would say keep a healthy distance. If you feel that perhaps there is an issue, a huge issue in life that you are not agreeing, and it is constantly brought up to where you cannot even have a decent conversation. For example, in African families, there are traditionalists or people who believe in the traditional religion, and you are now a born-again Christian, you don't participate in rituals that you view as demonic, and they are always urging you, you need to go and consult with the traditional healers, you need to go to white garment churches and consult and see what's going on with your life. And you are saying, I'm a believer, I don't consult mediums. My scripture, the scripture that I believe is the word of God, prohibits me from doing that. And maybe every time you go to see your parents, that's all they say. Why don't you consult? So-and-so's child did so, and look at how well they're doing. You might need to keep a healthy distance but still support them in every other way. If there's a funeral, if they're not feeling well, make sure you're there. If there's a party, if there's something of the family, make sure you're there, but find healthy boundaries to make sure that you navigate that relationship and you bring out the honor that scripture is talking about. Do for them what needs to be done. Move out if you're still staying with your parents. I think the way that we were made, past a certain age, you're never going to get along with your parents. I never advise for someone to stay in their parents' home longer than they're supposed to. Because now you're getting to be two, three adults in the same home, and it's never going to yield anything good. That's also part of my journey, my healing journey with my parents, my dad. We had the most friction when I was still living in his house. And I was already an adult at that time. I had my daughter with me, and it was so toxic. And I remember at that time I was already seeing my husband, and he said to me, Yeah, when you leave and you start your own life and you're not constantly in each other's spaces, and you're going to see the relationship is going to change. And I didn't believe it. But let me tell you, when I moved out, the adage says, absence makes the heart grow fonder. We became fond of each other. I remember one time I was actually leaving his house and he said, I'm so proud of you. And even now, and as I listen and I think of those words, my heart just warms up. He said, I'm so proud of you. I never would have imagined that my own dad would say that to me. So if you're still living at your parents' house and you're much older, I would advise you to move out. You're grown, find your own space, if possible, that can do a lot for your relationship and be a first step to forgiveness. Another thing I would want you, I want you to also understand that your parents' inadequacies as parents, instead of you taking it as a woe is me situation, you should actually use it as a way to get closer to God because He's the only perfect father, only perfect parent that you're going to find. When human parents, I mean your biological parents, fail you, they hand you over inadvertently or knowingly, however it happens, they hand you over to the protection and the love of God. And God Himself, God the Father, our Maker, He takes that position as your immediate caregiver. I love that so much. That happened to me. Psalm 27, verse 10, it says, Through it says, Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. Now let that sit for a moment. They can forsake me, but the Lord will receive me always. So whatever it is, whatever love, whatever treatment you wished for from your parents, give the Lord room to fill that void. And what I love about him is he doesn't spurn or he doesn't turn you away. As a preteen, I remember when I felt like I was raising myself. I was alone. I that's when I found my relationship with the Lord. I was born again at a very young age. I think I was between 10 and 11. That's when I would go to church on my own. And I would walk a different, like quite a distance, about three to five mile distance, every weekend to go to church. And all because I didn't have that guidance that I thought I should have had, it made me have a very ravenous hunger, a hunger for God that I couldn't understand at a young age. And if you can take advantage of that, I'm not saying if your parents were wonderful, don't be close to God. But I'm saying there is no parent that can outparent the father himself. The El Shaddai, you know, they say the original translation, that shod portion in El Shaddai actually means breast. And other scholars have called him the breasted one, and I love that so much. If you lacked a mother in your life, maybe you're an orphan, maybe she wasn't there for you the way you wanted, or maybe you always have the nurturer, the breasted one himself, the father of lights, they call him. He is your provider, your protector, your banner. He can be anything you want him to be, your comforter. I love that he's not only God with us, he's God in us. Closer than even your parent can ever be. He's in you. Wherever you are, that's where he is also. The last piece of advice maybe I can give you that helped me is give an abundance of love. No matter what. The God that we have received is love. And when we love, we exhibit the divine nature that is spoken of in 2 Peter 1, verse 4. We exhibit his divine nature that we carry. And his Not easy. Oh, it's no kids' game. It's not easy. However, if you read 1 Peter 4, verse 8, it says, above all, love each other deeply. For love covers a multitude of sins. Now you're going to have good and bad days. There are days where you're going to lash out because of the psychological portion of you that I spoke about. But don't grow weary ever of doing good. Continue. When you fall, make sure you get back up. Continue showing love. Even if it's not received well, show love. Even if it's not noticed, show love. Because it is your Father in heaven that will see your good works and he will reward you for it. The more you do it, the more your heart will agree. One day your heart is going to agree, and you will find yourself thinking in your mind fond memories. What also helps is think of all the things that they did. I know they may have wronged you, but think of some good things that they did. Think of some good deeds that they did towards you and focus on those. Meditate on those. Those will help you to humanize them. They will help you to dissolve the salty grudge that you have in your heart. And your heart is going to agree soon. That's my experience. That's what I've been through. And I hope you've been helped. And

Prayer For Healing And Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 45:35

I want to pray for you at this time. Heavenly Father, our beloved Heavenly Father, thank you so much for caring enough about us and bringing such a lesson. In this generation where the family is fragmented, the family is different from what it was before. Thank you for letting us know that Scripture cannot be broken. But you also gave us a way to apply that timeless truth to our situation. We are psychological beings. You are our creator and you know what even made us this way. You know all the experiences that maybe we don't even remember. We ask by your excellent spirit that you heal us from the points where we were hurt. Whether we were four years old, two years old, three years old, Lord, you know the origin. I pray for those that are listening, that are struggling, that have been abused in their past, and they are carrying that load with them. It's a tough load to carry. We know you know because you were touched by our infirmity. I pray for healing of families and reconciliation in your name. Amen. Now thank you so much for listening. If you're a returning subscriber, thank you for doing good and supporting us. We are growing every day. If you're new, I'm kindly asking you to subscribe. Follow if you're listening to us on any podcasting platform. So this wonderful podcast is recommended to others also. Now, this has been the Light of Life podcast, and as usual, stay in the light.