The Number One Key to Peace in Your Home
Be quick to forgive. Easier said than done until you realize the incredibly high price of a grudge. Failure to forgive has destroyed more marriages, families, interpersonal relationships, and lives than any other single poor life-choice. Unforgiveness is a personal prison you sentence yourself to, and the good news is you are the only one who has the key to let yourself out.
For our family, holding a grudge against anyone for anything was not an option. This policy was one of the biggest keys to harmony and peace in our family. We called it keeping “short accounts.”
Forgiveness has nothing to do with how we feel, it is a choice we make. It’s not an emotional decision, it’s a heart choice. Sometimes we have to make it, and make it, and make it, as many times as it takes until it sticks. Your choice will bring you the life-changing freedom that only true forgiveness can bring, if you stay consistent in making good choices in the thoughts you keep and the ones you discard. Then you train your kids by your example.
We taught our kids that when they realized they did something unkind to one another, they needed to immediately go to the person involved and ask their forgiveness. We taught them to say, “I was wrong for ________, will you forgive me?” And hopefully the response would come back, “I forgive you.” Remember, there is creative power in our words. Important: once we forgave, we never brought it up again. Just like Jesus.
We all lived by, when you blow it, man up and own it. Ask forgiveness quickly so bitterness and unforgiveness never have the chance to take root. “I was wrong, but you . . . “ just didn’t get it. That was blaming – not owning in our household. Any time you put a “but” in a sentence, you can forget anything that came before it.
Are you in a self-imposed prison of unforgiveness? Now you have the key, use it and set yourself free. Your example also holds the key to keeping your family free of this plague as well.
S. Courtney Lawson
Writer and speaker Sandy Lawson recently hit two Amazon.com best-seller lists with the new business book, "Transform," co-authored with best-selling author and speaker Brian Tracy.
Sandy Lawson serves as a Care Pastor at Element Church, in Wentzville Missouri, one of the fastest growing churches America. Sandy recently joined noted business development expert, best-selling author and speaker, Brian Tracy, along with a select group of the world's leading experts, to co-author the book titled, Transform: The World's Leading Entrepreneurs and Professionals Get to the Heart and Soul of Transforming your Life, Business & Health. The book was released on September 18, 2014 by CelebrityPress™ - a leading business book publisher.
On the day of release, Transform reached best-seller status in two Amazon.com categories - reaching as high as #6 in the "Direct Marketing" category. The book also reached best-seller status in the "Marketing and Small Business" category. Sandy contributed a chapter titled, "The Relationship Transformation...Taking Relationships From Terminal to Transformed."
Sandy Lawson has over 30 years of experience partnering with her husband, Kip, in family ministry and outreach. She's had the privilege of serving on staff at three mega churches prior to Element Church. In addition, she and her husband also had the honor of building the bus ministry of the Oneighty Youth Group at Church on the Move in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 400 riders weekly to nearly 1,500 riders each week.
Her biggest joy is coaching people in their personal relationships and helping them reach their God-given potential. She and her husband have helped hundreds of couples turn failing marriages into happily-ever-afters, as well as assisting parents in their quest to create healthy thriving families. In their career, Sandy and her husband have been a major influence in the lives of thousands of children, teens, and adults around the world. Sandy is the mother of three, and the grandmother of eight wonderful grandkids. She and her husband have been married over 46 years.
She is the author of a parenting book, "Parenting Through the Mirror" which explores the concept that great parenting must begin with personal transformation. She is also the author and illustrator of a children's geology book, "Iggy and the Volcano" that teaches kids the cycle of igneous rocks. Sandy is a freelance writer, speaker, blogger and was a major contributor to an internationally distributed children's curriculum.
After such a successful release, Sandy Lawson will once again be recognized by The National Academy of Best-Selling Authors™, an organization that honors authors from many of the leading independent best-seller lists.
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