Yes God forgets, but he is not human *smile*. I agree forgetting is a sure
sign of forgiving. If Phil, I'll pick on Phil here, If Phil offended me
for some reason, I could indeed forgive him and ultimately forget what it
was he did or said that offended me. That is somewhat different than
remembering to a point of utilizing wisdom that comes from a situation. We
can though obtain wisdom from situations in which  we ourselves have not
been involved in but have only heard of. In your case, it would take me a
great deal to forgive someone abusing my daughter, forgetting? I'm not
sure I could do that. I will say, in my life, I've experienced a very
difficult situation to forgive. I indeed seriously thought of and planned
to get revenge. I stewed over it so much and lived the revenge out in my
mind and  was thinking "Oh how great that would feel to do this thing". I
then felt my revenge which was brewing in my mind beginning to  become
more real and I feared in myself I was actually going to follow through
with this plan. I prayed for  release and in fact knew, as hard as it was
to even consider, I needed to forgive this person, in order to set myself
free from it all. I will say that in one afternoon of praying, I indeed
felt genuine forgiveness for this person where before I was planning to do
them some real harm. I haven't forgotten the situation in which all this
anger occurred, but the  emotional attachment is no longer there and it is
like an empty memory.

Brad




on 04:03 AM 7/24/2005, Angel said:
God forgets.  Yes?  I think that door handle idea is a good one.  As my
husband has Alzheimer's, if my son ever got a car I would tell him to
remove
the handles so my husband wouldn't want to leave on his own.  Thanks for
the
idea.  I would never have thought of it on my own.  Perhaps that was the
same sort of situation in this case.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad D" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 4:12 PM
Subject: Re: Something I discovered-forgiveness


 > No forgiveness doesn't equate forgetting. For one I'm not sure that is
 > even possible in of our selfs, well minus a traumatic experience, but
not
 > only that, we obtain wisdom and understanding from not forgetting. If
we
 > are sucked into a bad situation by say accepting a ride from a
stranger,
 > and things turn out not good, we learn to not do that in the future. I
did
 > such back in the 90's, albeit nothing bad happened, I did learn. .
While
 > at a blindness adjustment center in the Twin Cities, a friend and I
went
 > to the store, bought a bit more groceries than we anticipated, called a
 > cab and waited, and waited and waited and waited. No cab. But this
 > other  young gentleman saw us waiting and offered us a ride. Before I
 > could say, "No, thanks anyway", my friend  opened up his yap and said
"yea
 > sure". My friend being older than I, and fairly knowledgeable in such
 > things surprised me. Anyway  This young guy was clean cut and drove a
 > fairly  newer car and prominently displayed a Bible on the dash and a
 > swinging Jesus, I say swinging Jesus 'cause he was on a chain swinging
 > from the rear view mirror.  almost too prominently displayed as if to
say
 > "you can trust me". Anyway, I jump in the back passenger side of the
car,
 > slam the door,  and my buddy and the guy are tossing  the rest of the
 > goods in the trunk. I think to myself "Oh shoot, I want to check to see
if
 > we got every thing out of the cart" I go to get out, and there is no
door
 > handle, it had been removed. I doubt broken cause like I say, it was a
 > nice neat clean and newer car. As I recall  the other rear door was
also
 > missing the handle. I had no way of letting my friend know in time
before
 > he jumped in so we could bale out before we became a six o'clock news
 > statistic. Fortunately this man brought us to the apartment as
promised,
 > and perhaps he was a nice kind young man with a Bible on the dash and a
 > swinging Jesus on the mirror, and just happened to have two back doors
 > without handles, but I know I'll never take such offers again in a
metro
 > downtown area or anywhere for that matter. My friend can if he wants,
but
 > I ain't lol. So although there is nothing much to forgive, I will not
 > forget, and have learned because of that unforgetness. Similar is the
 > benefit from a situation requiring forgiveness.
 >
 > Brad
 >
 >
 > Brad
 >
 >
 > on 02:01 PM 7/23/2005, Rhonda said:
 > That sure is an interesting thought!  I wonder though as huans can we
 > truly
 > forget, or is it rather that we don't make it a practice to daily or
 > weekly
 > list the offenses others have  commited against us?
 > I've been married for almost 21 years now, and I know there many times
 > that
 > through word or action I have hurt the one I promised to love till
death
 > do
 > us part, and he has hurt me.  And if I wanted too, I could remember
some
 > of
 > the deepest hurts, there is a  memory of them, but the pain of them is
not
 > something that hinders my love for Ben, because I love him I have
forgiven
 > him, and as time goes by, I find it more dificult to recall speciffic
 > worda
 > and actions.  I was thinking of Angel here, and the rape of her
daughter,
 > a
 > horriffic event, I am sure she will never forget,  so what do you all
 > think?
 > Does forgiveness mean total forgetfullness?
 >
 > Rhonda