On the lord’s prayer
We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement and it was emphatically stated by our Lord that if you don’t forgive, you will not be forgiven.
There is no part of His teaching that is clearer, and there are also, no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or that there are extenuating circumstances, or that we understand their reasoning. He gives no caveats, reasons or explanations for us to forgive; we just do.
We are to forgive them, however spiteful, however mean, however vindictive and most importantly, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we won’t be forgiven either.
In short, you gotta swallow your pride so that you can move on. But this has to be a weekly activity. Each week you review the problems, slights and annoyances you encountered — that car that cut you off, the waitress that never showed, the supermarket clerk because the company advertised something but didn’t have it, or the telemarker caller that got you at a bad time. It is only by reviewing these episodes, so you are always in check with your actions, and so slowly you will be aware of them and stop them, short.
Of course to do this, you need to start with the oldest ones you can recollect & go from there…memory by memory, week by week until you’re good, and those bad habits are gone.
In my anguish... 