I shared how I had found it really really difficult to forgive someone who had hurt my husband, Dominic, really badly. I think its sometimes harder to forgive a person who has hurt a loved one rather than hurt us. I knew I had to forgive because forgiveness is a thing we are instructed by God to do -
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you;
Matt 6:14
At the end of the day, we know that Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins so who are we to deny forgiveness to anyone? So I made a choice - I chose to forgive this person. The trouble was that feelings of resentment to this person would surface again. So I forgave them again.... and again.... and again. It actually took years before those feelings of resentment finally went and you know what, I felt a whole lot better. If we hang on to unforgiveness, the biggest loser is ourself. Those feelings of unforgiveness and resentment just act as a big pollution in our hearts and fester and cloud everything. But only just let them go and we feel a whole lot lighter - we feel free!
This inspired my next page for Creative Every Day January challenge - Past, Present, Future
I used distress ink pads for this page, I sponged a very light Tumbled Glass backround then stencilled the flowers - a gorgeous Prima stencil - and the raindrops followed by stamping - IndigoBlu script and Banana Frog circles from the build a flower set:
I stenciled the cage:
and this lovely bird flying free:
Then the journaling which came out lopsided - grrr - when will I learn to write in pencil first:
I added the swirls around the journaling and liked them so much I stamped them round the edges as well:
Have you found it hard to forgive someone?
This week its on the letter A. A has just got to be for art and my art journal.
So true! So often we don't realise that it is ourselves that we hurt when we hold on to unforgiveness. The picture that comes to mind for me is holding on to barbed wire. The more we hold on, the more we bleed.
ReplyDeleteI really like the soft colours you've used here, Susan Carol. The bird freed from the cage is a lovely symbol.
You've created a lovely journal page. The imagery is really is strong and the composition is wonderful. Thank you for sharing your art with us for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. ~Michelle
ReplyDeleteThis piece is lovely and I really admire how you put so much heart and emotion into your artwork. I loved the quote, too, and think this page is full of beauty in more ways than one. Great use of stenciling and the color palette is perfect! This page is filled with meaning and I'm so glad you shared your talents with us this week for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog!
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