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I have been struggling with an issue of forgiveness lately. In a recent daily reflection time, I was shown that there is a door between holding a grudge and forgiving much like the doors in my home.
I live in a very old home (nearly 200 years old) and there are different doors everywhere. The door that I thought of in this situation was the door between the bathroom and the kitchen. I do very different things on each side of that door. On one side, I am focused on eliminating and on the other side I am focused on nurturing.
The bathroom is a very private space in our home. I also think that my time of working through anger and discontent should be a personal thing between me and God. I need to work through the difficult feelings without striking out and hurting others. I need the quiet space to ask for guidance from God.
When I walk through the doorway between the bathroom and the kitchen, I don't forget what is on the other side, but I do behave differently - both because I am no longer in the bathroom and because I did what I needed to do in the bathroom and have moved on. I have to do the same thing for myself in the realm of forgiveness. I have to do what I need to do "in the bathroom" of hurt and despair and then move through the door into the kitchen of forgiveness. I need to leave my eliminations of anger, mistrust, and negativity behind and move forward with cooking up things that are good and nurturing for my soul and for others around me. I see prayer as very similar to washing the dishes in the kitchen. I need to pray regularly to keep my kitchen of forgiveness clean, healthy and functioning much like needing to wash the dishes on a regular basis to keep my home healthy.
There will always be times when I need to return to the bathroom, but I can't spend my whole life there. In fact, I spend much more time on the outside of the bathroom door in my home, so should I do in life!