Christmas is a Time For Forgiveness: 5 Easy Steps To Help You Let Go of Anger and Forgive

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What’s the difference between Santa Clause and a knight? One slays a dragon, the other drags a sleigh! Alas, my poor heart, here we are, fallen into the pit we were so firmly resolved to avoid! Well, we must get up again and leave it forever. We must call on God’s mercy and hope that it will help us to be steadier in the days to come. Let us start out again on the way of humility. Let us be of good heart and from this day be more on guard. God will help us; we will do better.” Ask the Child in the Manger for Help to Forgive I love seeing children’s excitement and anticipation throughout the Christmas season! I remember my own anticipation as a Primary child growing up in Argentina. One year, our Primary teachers asked us to clean our old toys, wash our dolls’ hair, and repair their dresses so we could donate them to little boys and girls who had to spend Christmas day in the hospital. After a while they played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.

Why did Donald Trump continuously decorate the Christmas tree? Because people kept saying “moron” to him! Joseph was contemplating divorce. But, and this is where love and forgiveness was displayed. In his contemplation, he was mindful not to disgrace Mary. He was going to deal with the situation in love without openly disgracing Mary. He was going to end it privately to spare Mary any open shame. Here is a great love lesson; in our dealing with others, we must act out of love and not the desire to spite other. It is very likely if any of us found ourselves in Joseph’s shoes, firstly, the whole community will hear about how Mary has been unfaithful. We may proceed to tell how a hypocrite she has been. She carried herself as a virgin and here she was with a pregnancy. Perhaps it is no surprise that Winterson should produce a volume of short stories inspired by the season, given that her own experience reads like a grim parody of the miracle birth. The constant refrain throughout her autobiographical novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was her mother’s assertion that “the Devil led us to the wrong crib”; and these feelings are sublimated into Winterson’s Christmas tale “The Lion, the Unicorn and Me”. The story is a retelling of the nativity from the donkey’s point of view, in which the ass receives a snout of gold, having nuzzled against the foot of an angel perched on the stable roof. In her memoir, Winterson made it clear what this signified: “I was the runty little donkey. I needed a golden nose.” Jesus never sinned, but he knew just how seductive sin could be (Hebrews 4:15). He knew how much sin would cost him. He came to cancel sin, and so he taught us to plead for forgiveness. Forgiveness in Flesh and Blood Theresa May has asked Santa for a home makeover this year. First thing on the list was a new Cabinet!

Unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment have a way of blinding us with their darkness, and the only way to see past them is by the light of forgiveness. When Mother Teresa helped the woman to say the words, “I forgive my son,” she not only eased her pain on earth but also prepared her to find peace in eternity. The Most Challenging Words

What is atonement? We who have inherited this free salvation are now “at-one”, or united with Christ. Like a blanket of snow covers the ground and all we see is pure white (until the dog comes along), God sees us through His Holy Son, who is Holy and righteous and covers our transgressions – once and for all.Jesus had a way of getting right to the heart of people's problems. The real issue here is that NO ONE, not even Peter who walked with Jesus every day, could love the unlovely and give forgiveness without the Help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was reminding Peter, and US, that apart from HIM we can't do anything. At Tuesday evening's commemoration, led by the bishop of Sheffield, candles will be lit, a wreath laid, and a new carol, The Bethlehem Star, will be sung. It was written in memory of Alan Greaves by Bob Chilcott, one of Britain's foremost choral composers and conductors, who had never met his fellow musician but was deeply moved after reading about his death. Instead, St. Francis says, when we feel our anger rising, we must calmly call upon God’s help. “Prayers directed against present and pressing anger must always be said calmly and peaceably and not violently.”

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Understood this way, confession is not something over and above “believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Confession is the daily manifestation of faith in Jesus, a daily living out of recognizing Him as Savior, Master, and Treasure, a consistent exhibit of the Gospel of God’s grace. I remember how idealistic I was amid the mounting challenges the world seemed to be going through in my youthful days, especially in the 60s and 70s. My memories can fade with age, yet some can become more precious. I am older and sentimental enough to have been deeply impacted by the passing of Queen Elizabeth 11 and deeply aware that I will miss her Christmas Day broadcast and the sharing of her personal faith in Jesus Christ. The baby in the manger we celebrate this season is God in the flesh, come to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), so that all of us sinners who believe in Him can be reconciled to God the Father, and then live as His beloved children every day.

Kindliness, Mercy, Forgiveness

Notice, Jesus prayed a lot, but he never had to pray that part of the prayer. No, he simply knew what everyone else needed most every day. Like him, they needed food for the day and protection from temptation; unlike him, they needed forgiveness for when they fell short. And fall we would, again and again (1 John 1:8). We were, each one of us, brought forth in iniquity and conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5). And while that old man died when we believed, we still have to face him every day. Like many first-time fathers (myself included), the man couldn’t find the words. In this case, however, he literally couldn’t speak. When Zechariah finally met his son, he could only ask for something to write on. He didn’t get to taste the boy’s name on his lips for eight whole days. I vividly remember meeting our firstborn. I can’t imagine feeling all I felt those days in silence. It might have killed me to try. I remember my face was raw and dry from crying so much. In the hospital I couldn't hug him or hold him at all. All I could do was hold his fingers, so many tubes and wires. I remember I started to pray, I believe I can talk to God, that he's my father, so I talked to him. Why don’t Southern Rail train guards share advent calendars? They want to open the doors themselves!

Jesus is our example of offering forgiveness to those who have sinned against us based on our love for God. “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” ( Luke 23:34). How many times had he and his wife sat and cried together in silence? How many times had they had the same aching conversations? How many times had they talked about names? How many times had they held someone else’s newborn? How many times had they thought she might be pregnant? How many times had they asked for a child? Bennett and Marco Grazzini have no chemistry that I can see. Erin seems like she is constantly escaping the rest of the family to spend time with Mateo. A lot of the situations seemed forced rather than natural. For example,, the restaurant assistant is on a mission to put the two together, even before she knows Erin.I must admit that although I’ve been on planet earth for some time, I still feel relatively young at heart. Perhaps that is because I hang around Contemporary Christian Music and a younger generation. Young and old alike must make sense of life issues in these challenging times. At Christmastime, I think of the missionaries—elders, sisters, senior missionaries, and mission presidents throughout the world—who, as representatives of Jesus Christ, give freely of their time and service to all mankind. I think of all the brothers and sisters who spend many hours serving faithfully in their callings. Also at this time, I think of all the men and women serving in the military to ensure our safety. Thank you for your service! It is also important to remember that there is a difference between forgiveness and trust. Jesus tells us again and again in the Gospels to forgive and to show mercy, but He doesn’t say we must place our trust in the people who have hurt us. Rather, Scripture says, “It is better to put confidence in the Lord than to trust in man.” (Psalm 118:8)