Practice Forgiveness
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
“Practice Forgiveness”
I was in the presence of greatness. The more she talked the more I knew I was in the presence of greatness. It was her walk, her talk, her demeanor that screamed greatness.
Immaculee Ilibagiza’s story was featured on 60 minutes and on PBS channels with Wayne Dyer. Her story of forgiveness is heart wrenching and inspirational.
When I think of forgiveness, I think of Immaculee Ilibagiza. Immaculee is the survivor of the Rwandan holocaust and author of the book Live to Tell. For 91 days she hid in a small bathroom with 7 other woman under the fear of death. Any soft noise could lead to her demise.
Once rescued, Immaculee learned the fate of her entire family. Her mother, father, brother, sister, school pals, friends had been executed. Everyone she had ever known was now dead. By the cruelest of life’s lessons, she learned her family was killed by her neighbor.
Immaculee reached out and forgave her neighbor, the one who killed her family.
The rosary, Immaculee says “is her lifeblood, it became my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I prayed the rosary until I fell asleep.” She prayed the rosary over and over in that small bathroom because “one of them must be a good one.” One of the decades would get her prayers answered.
Immaculee recommends “surrender to God, as life is too much for one person without God.”
This amazing and inspirational woman is a living example of forgiveness and devotion. Immaculee is a true inspiration with her acts of forgiveness and love. She exudes greatness.
She left us with these words.
“Give yourself the gift of peace, practice forgiveness.”
Tags: Forgiveness, fear, forgiveness, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Live to Tell, love, Pray, prayer, rosary, rwanda, rwanda genocide, sleep, wayne dyer
Who Would You Call?
Every day offers opportunities for us to share love, be love, extend forgiveness, and heal our hearts. Will you take these opportunities and seize the moment to create powerful, positive change for yourself? We can’t begin to “seize the day” without first enjoying and embracing the moments that make up the day!
The joy is in the journey, not just the destination. Do it NOW! Don’t wait. Create Change NOW!
We can so easily waste precious time worrying about some future moment or some past event. If we worry about something, the circumstances may change, and then the object of our concern doesn’t even exist anymore!
In the meantime, priceless moments, which could have savored, have been forever lost. And the hours and the days fly by without seizing the beautiful moments and opportunities to allow love, peace and joy into our lives.
Life has an interesting way of accelerating as we get older! The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves can get longer if we don’t consciously choose to LIVE FULLY and listen to the voice inside us wanting to feel alive!
Let’s choose not to wake up one day far in the future with only dreams of what we wished we had done along the way. Let’s embrace the opportunities NOW instead of waiting for that perfect moment or waiting for things “to settle down a bit” before we take action and live fully from our hearts (instead of our heads!)
We deserve to live with passion, vitality and JOY. But, no one can do that for us. It’s a gift we must give ourselves!
Go out there today and make it a GREAT day for yourself! Do something that makes you feel alive! Do something you truly WANT to do, not just those things you SHOULD do! .
If you knew you were going to be leaving this world soon and had only one phone call to make, who would you call?
What would you say?
Why are you waiting??
Tags: Forgiveness, change, forgiveness, friends, healing, heats, love, phone call
Make Me Feel Important
This is a post I received on facebook from Pamela Gregory.
Pamela’s post reminds me of a message from Mother Theresa… Our greatest poverty is those who do not feel love.
I found it very profound and much needed. I share it with you in hopes to make your day and hopefully someone else’s.
======
I had a conversation with a loved one this morning that made me think about how simple it is to make someone else feel important and loved. Feeling loved is an innate NEED for all of us, so why do we not show those we love most how much they matter more often?
The ultimate message I’m trying to share is the importance of unconditional love and acceptance of yourself and all others. Unfortunately, learning how to love yourself is far easier said than done. Hands down, the number one issue I help others to resolve is the damage that has been done at home. We often take those closest to us for granted, assuming they know we love them, so why is it necessary to do anything special to show it? It doesn’t take much to show someone you love that you love them…but the benefits are tremendous. Telling them, showing them, and singing their praises to them and to others in front of them (especially children), can go a long way in helping build their self-esteem and self worth.
Self worth is the most important belief to achieve as far as I’m concerned. When you truly love yourself, nothing anyone says to you or about you, can hurt you, because you know your self worth. It is simply their opinion, and we are all entitled to one. Someone’s opinion of you need not diminish who you know yourself to be in your own eyes, because you know better! The ONLY way THEIR OPINION can HURT YOU is IF you AGREE with them…period!!! So understand, there is nothing more empowering than loving and accepting yourself. I’m not talking vanity here. I’m talking about being at peace with who you are…
As parents, the best gift we can give our children is to show love so they FEEL loved. Most children act out because they are desperate for attention/love, and if they don’t get it from you one way, they will get it another. Many parents find it easier to be affectionate with daughters, but sons need it just as much. We don’t make our sons tougher by not showing our love and affection to them. Alll it does is make them feel unloved and unimportant.
If you don’t feel loved by those in your life, remember everyone is dealing with their own stuff, so do not interpret that as a reflection of you or your worth, and don’t take it personally.
In an ideal world, we all would know that we are lovable regardless whether anyone tells us or shows us, but in reality that isn’t the case. A forgiving heart is a loving heart. Forgive those in your life who didn’t give you the love you were seeking, simply because they were never shown it themselves. Remember, you cannot teach or be what you do not know. Because those around us may not know how to love or show love, doesn’t mean YOU aren’t lovable or that YOU don’t matter.
It costs nothing to be kind or loving. Choose someone in your life today that could use an extra dose of your love and attention. Show and tell them how much they are loved and how important they are to you… Then stand back and simply observe what a difference you just made in them …
Pamela Gregory
Tags: Forgiveness, Main
In the Presence of Greatness ….
“Practice Forgiveness”
I was in the presence of greatness. The more she talked the more I knew I was in the presence of greatness. It was her walk, her talk, her demeanor that screamed greatness.
When I think of forgiveness, I think of Immaculee Ilibagiza. Immaculee is the survivor of the Rwandan holocaust and author of the book Live to Tell. For 91 days she hid in a small bathroom with 7 other woman under the fear of death. Any soft noise could lead to her demise.
Once rescued, Immaculee learned the fate of her entire family. Her mother, father, brother, sister, school pals, friends had been executed. Everyone she had ever known was now dead. By the cruelest of lifes lessons, she learned her family was killed by her neighbor.
Immaculee reached out and forgave her neighbor, the one who killed her family.
The rosary, Immaculee says “is her lifeblood, it became my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I prayed the rosary until I fell asleep.” She prayed the rosary over and over in that small bathroom because “one of them must be a good one.” One of the decades would get her prayers answered.
Immaculee recommends “surrender to God, as life is too much for one person without God.”
This amazing woman is a living example of forgiveness and devotion. Immaculee is a true inspiration with her acts of forgiveness and love. She exudes greatness.
She left us with these words.
“Give yourself the gift of peace, practice forgiveness.”
Tags: Forgiveness, forgiveness, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Live to Tell
