Two Friends

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, 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 THE 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 WROTE ON A STONE, WHY?"

THE OTHER FRIEND REPLIED "WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN IN SAND WHERE 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.

Let me tell you a story, of two women. Christie got married, I stood up in her wedding, after a lot of wrong perceptions, the two women were no longer friends… Each woman still cared about the other and missed the other. Both the women were very hurt.

Christie sent the other this message. It killed me because I missed my friend so much. I told her not to send me this kind of stuff unless she wanted to be friends. She was afraid to call. She was afraid I would… Oh, I don’t know, with me there’s no telling. After a lot of years of being hurt, I have a really loud bark. REALLY LOUD. I am really nice, and can be wonderful, but when I start barking, holy moly, call the dog pound.

She sent an email to me. I think I answered it in like 5 minutes, maybe less. We miss each other. We both said a lot of things, we might have meant them at the time, but we really didn’t mean them in the long haul. People say and do things all the time that hurt us. It says in the bible that we will be forgiven the same way we have forgiven others. We talked today, for awhile, I could have talked to her ALL NIGHT.

There is a song by Audio A, Ocean Floor. How our sins are on the ocean floor. God doesn’t dive in and bring them up. They don’t wash up in high or low tide, they are gone, never to be heard from again. I will tell you, I can forgive someone for hurting me, but I have a hard time forgetting. The title of my blog is “There’s a lesson in everything, sometimes it takes us awhile to get it”. It’s not “us” who take a long time, it’s me who takes along time to get it. I will tell you this, this has been some baggage I have been carrying for months, the things I said and did. I was wrong. I wasn’t the only one who was wrong, but I don’t remember… it’s one the ocean floor, never to be heard from again.

Thank You dear Jesus for taking away my sins. Thank You dear Father for sending Your son for me. Thank You for keeping Christie in my heart and in my prayers. Lord, I thank You for ridding me of my sins, I thank You for forgetting them, for giving me a clean slate. Thank You for loving me that much.

Ocean Floor - Audio A

The mistakes I've made
That caused pain
I could have done without
All my selfish thoughts
All my pride
The things I hide
You have forgot about

They're all behind you
They'll never find you
They're on the ocean floor
Your sins are forgotten
They're on the bottom
Of the ocean floor All my greed
All the things that haunt me now
They're not a pretty sight to see
But they're wiped away
By a mighty wave
A mighty wave, mighty wave

They're all behind you
They'll never find you
They're on the ocean floor
Your sins are forgotten
They're on the bottom
Of the ocean floor
Take them away