A story tells that two friends were walking through
the desert. During some point of the journey, they
had an argument, and one friend slapped the other
one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt,
but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand:
Today my best friend slapped me in the face.
They kept on walking, until they found an oasis,
where they decided to take a bath. The one who had
been slapped got stuck in the mire and started
drowning, but his friend saved him. After he
recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:
Today my best friend saved my life.
The friend, who had slapped and saved his best
friend, asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in
the sand, and now, you write on a stone, why?"
The other friend replied:
"When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand, where the winds of
forgiveness can erase it away, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it. Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your blessings in stone.
The anecdote is for me akin to the saying: "To err is human, To forgive is divine!"
The story is inspirational and truly evokes a liberating attitude especially in relation to one's family and friends. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said easy to strangers and those people a person couldn't care less about. That is why the practice to forgive is somehow limited to those we have compassion for. "NO COMPASSION, NO FORGIVENESS!" It's sad but really, it's just how it goes.
Edited: mcborne on 31st Jan, 2009 - 6:53pm
That is a very beautiful story. I can never stress enough how important forgiveness is. I personally believe that's one of the few things that have helped humans progress this far, and will continue to help humans evolve to possibly advancing toward peace. And really, grudges only hurt the people who carry them.
I will agree that this story is inspirational, but feel compelled to present another view. Suppose this wrong being done happens on more than one occasion. We may be compelled to forgive our loved ones (maybe even strangers) to a fault. "My husband beats me, but it's just because he loves me, and I love him, so I forgive him." Perhaps not all of what we have been wronged should be written in sand. Lest we forget to learn from our past and end up with footprints on our faces.
I understand your point and you are right you do have to take proper actions to be safe.
Here is how that should play out if done in a godly manner.
Woman leaves as she is mistreated not divorce but to seek safety. This hopefully tells hubby he is way out of line and needs to change. This can take years to occur as well as seconds.
The husband then through a Christian body can seek proper help and treatment to understand why he acts this way and investigate how to recover from it. Might be small steps or could be expulsion of demonic powers in his life or some combination there of.
I do not believe we chose to be with some one then willfully abuse them. The is a trigger puling up past issues that have never been healed and that is what triggers the rage. Once healed then he can now work on healing the relationship with his wife.
Through god and forgiveness this can happen and does. problem is so few chose this path as it takes the man and the woman to buy into the idea that through god all things can be healed.
So geenies story does hold true for all.
This story is very touching. The story it reminds me of is Footprints in the sand. This story is amazing and I thought about it for so long after I heard it it made my head hurt. This story is very true.