It’s in THE WALLS, I TELL YOU!
Sometimes I can be so blond.
Color me surprised! When we first moved to California, I found myself sharing our home with unwanted critters. I moved from an extremely arid region, translation – Las Vegas, where the only small animals around our home were a few scorpions and tiny ants.
Following our unpacking and a few nights in our brand new home, I was sound asleep enjoying the cooler nights of Southern California. That’s when I heard it, a rustling noise in all places, the walls of our bedroom. EEK! I mean, I sat straight up in bed, freaked. Can I get an Amen here?
The next morning I figured we have rodents roving the interior of our abode. Thus, the Warrior Princess in me arose to do battle (queue: theme song from Rocky)
I trot down to the store, return and strategically place some not nice stuff around the garage for the brazen beaties. Okay, I felt bad about this too but it was either them or me.
That evening I slept in pure bliss, the rodents were silent, the dog was quiet and miracles of miracles my husband’s snoring only reached one decibel on the sound meter instead of two.
All was right with the world.
The week past and I forgot about the unwanted visitors. Until…..
I stepped out into our garage. Eeeuw! What is that smell? I reason with myself, this is a brand new home. We must have a leak in the gas connection to the water heater. You know where this is going, don’t you?
I call the Gas Company. The technician comes out immediately. He steps out into the garage, sniffs once then slowly circles to face me and says flatly, “Lady, you don’t have a gas leak, you have a dead animal in here somewhere.”
Was my face red?
I discovered that morning just how effective rat poison is and how to add another embarrassing moment to my repretwa. I wonder, however, if we can see something in this story? Is it possible that we could be nibbling on a little poison ourselves?
Human poison is masked in words such as; unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness.
We chew on a little at a time. Convinced the poison is going to hurt the one in which we are harboring resentment. We chew on it and chew on it and the only one who is hurt is ….. us.
So how do we forgive those who have hurt us?
One: Relinquish our right to get even. Romans 12:19
Two: Respond to evil with good. Luke 6:27-28 This is hard medicine but it is necessary to keep resentment from growing.
Three: Repeat these steps as long as it takes. Matthew 18-21-22 until your heart and head catch up.
Four: Rescue others with the news of forgiveness. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. We hold the truth to living free.
Forgiveness releases resentment. Forgive because we are forgiven and Jesus wants us to live in peace and freedom. Colossians 3:13
Let’s make this real: Below is a luggage tag. Print it out. Write the name(s) of those you want forgive. Pray to honestly release your resentment. Or, perhaps you can’t forgive yourself for something in your past. Write your name on this tag.
This piece of luggage now belongs to Jesus. We are shipping our hurts and unforgiveness to Him. Drop your tag in the trash or your Bible. It’s now covered by Christ.
Lord, when we begin to feel those old bitter feelings well up in our chest, remind us of what we did today. We surrendered our feelings and bitterness over this person(s) to you. Don’t let us take it back. I ask in the powerful, life-changing name of Jesus.
Please visit me at…..
*inspired from the teaching of Pastor Chico Goff. Thanks Chico!
Thank you Lynn. Yes! You get an Amen from here, all the way in Australia! A great blog post and a truly important message. I will certainly be getting the luggage tags out and writing my name on the first, and then going through the list! Thank you again, and Amen! 🙂
Sweetie, this was truly awesome. Bless you.
You are right, Lynn. Sometimes we hold on to hurts FOREVER. We can’t get past the point and it keeps welling up. We need to let go, so not only that the hurt will stop, but that can start healing. Nice idea about the luggage tag 🙂
Thank you for sharing your heart with us today.
You rock Lynn, I had to laugh because both the areas we lived in Ca. had roof rats-those things you heard in the wall. We used the bait that makes them crave water so they leave and won’t die in your nest.
Great post about the sins in our lives….
Awesome!!!
Don’t ever doubt what the Lord can do through you.
Love & hugs,
Noreen
Hey “Blondie”!
I never would have thought you could transition from rodents in walls to forgiveness, but you did it girl! This is most convicting post.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go find a luggage tag.
Hugs and Blessings!
What a beautiful illustration and application steps. ooooh. I love it. I used to struggle with forgiveness and bitterness so much. I prayed to God for help and He gave me Numbers 33:55-56. He told me that in order for me to conquer the “Promised Land” I must drive out the inhabitants. Oh, that has made such a great difference in my life.
But, I love your application action steps. I’m writing them down so I can share with others. Thanks.
FABULOUS post, Lynn!!! Really, the BEST & oh so true!! I’m printing this one out so I can carry it with me & reflect on it…such a lesson I need to learn!
And the rats!?! LOL! I am cracking up here because just 3 weeks ago we had a mouse in our apartment…EEEEK!!! It’s gone now though…thankfully! 🙂
Love you, girl!!
Patricia
oh absolutely! I hate those dead animal moments. You’ve got a BIG amen from me lol. Time to get rid of the deadness if our lives and live with the living if that makes sense 🙂
An excellent analogy Lynn. It is so true that unforgiveness hurts the one who is harboring bitterness and resentment. It is only in the letting go that we can find peace.
Thank you Lynn and blessings! I’m forgiven and I have no more tags! I learned this the hard way but needed to place ALL of this
under the blood before I could start to flow in His Spirit. I allowed it to fester and hinder my walls for a large part of my life. My hardest
forgiveness was for myself. I laid this on the altar but somehow kept taking it back. Only YOU could turn creepy rodents in the walls that disturb your sleep…into a spiritual application of such depth! Ohhh
and I forgot…you got an AMEN from down south of you in Mexico!
I’m so thankful for the inspiration you are to me! Thank you Pastor Chico for inspiring Lynn and helping her Lace this story with Grace!
“Forgiveness releases resentment. Forgive because we are forgiven and Jesus wants us to live in peace and freedom. Colossians 3:13”
Thank you Lynn for this post. Sometimes it’s easy to find reasons not to forgive but the fact that we have been forgiven is reason enough to forgive.
We had a whole litter of baby skunks die under our raised foundation. The mother left and someone closed the opening trapping the babies. Can you think of a spiritual application for this one? 🙂
A specialist came in and put lime all over the dirt and it worked.
Thank you for this devotional post. Forgiveness is the basis for a happy life.
This is right on time! I need to forgive and let go, but it’s so easy to say, hard to do. Yeah, it will take awhile to get my head and heart together while going thru the motions, but I’m sick and tired of being resentful and bitter and not sleeping (and how I love my sleep!). Thanks a lot for this post. This is the kick in the pants I needed. Maybe things will start turning around for me…
And the thing is when we nibble we don’t feel it effects on us until it is to late. Enjoyed the story!