Forgiveness

I heard Don Henley in my head as I typed that title. "I've been trying to get down to the heart of the matter, but my flesh gets weak. My thoughts seem to scatter, but I think it's about forgiveness, forgiveness..."

Sometimes it is easy for me to forgive. There are people in my life that I sincerely love (and like) and want to maintain a close loving relationship with, and it is easy for me to forgive those people. I usually realize very quickly that their presence in my life is much too important for me to push them away by not forgiving them. Then there are people that, honestly, are hard to even like...people that I don't get along with. Typically I just think these people are ridiculous. I don't understand them, and they probably don't understand me. My bad attitude takes over 89% of the time, and it shows when something happens.

When someone hurts me, my family, or any of the previously sincerely loved people I get mad. Very mad. Then like Don Henley says "my flesh gets weak. My thoughts seem to scatter..." I'm definitely not trying to take a lesson from Don Henley, but that song is now in my head. I overthink many situations, and it leads to worry and anxiety. Before I know it, I will have created a scenario in my head that may or may not happen, but I'm already reacting as if it will. That's been a struggle of mine for quite a while, and if I'm not careful I'll go off on a tangent and completely forget the point of this post.

Ok. Forgiveness.

The Bible speaks a lot about forgiveness.

Following the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

In Matthew 18 Jesus uses the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant to explain forgiveness and tell us to forgive "seventy times seven."

Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven"

The list goes on and on and on.

Maybe it's just me, but forgiveness is easy to understand in theory, but in certain situations with certain people, it is nothing but... a pain. Forgiving someone can be such a blessing. Forgiving someone creates the opportunity for us to become more like our creator and learn more about him. However, because of our very sinful nature forgiveness is counterintuitive. I think we can all agree that it's easier to just hold a grudge, at least in the short term. I also think my personality lends itself to grudge holding.

So, I have a few questions that I would really like answered. I'm not necessarily looking for the right answer. I just want to know what people think about this. How do others react? What can I learn from them? Here are my questions:

-What are practical things to do in order to forgive someone? (It's always good to have a reminder of the basics!)
-How do you forgive someone while still dealing with the hurt of the offense?
-While dealing with the hurt and trying to forgive, how do you take thoughts captive and lay them down before the Lord in order to forgive someone?
-Is it okay to forgive someone and then separate yourself from them? What if it is someone who repeatedly offends you?

I'm anxious to hear others' thoughts.