Penelope J. Stokes tells about her reaction to a scene in the motion picture, Waiting to Exhale. A woman, victimized by her husband’s infidelity, gathers up his clothes, his shoes, his personal belongings, and stuffs them into his expensive Mercedes.
When the closets and drawers are empty, she returns to the car, sets a torch to the contents, and stands there with tears streaming down her cheeks as the evidence of her marriage goes up in flames.
“Most people in the audience cheered,” says Penelope Stokes. “I cried,” she says, “because her defiant gesture of closure did nothing to heal the woundedness of her heart.” A God Tap
A bit of revenge may have lifted that woman’s heart for a moment. But to move toward healing, she would have to learn as we all must learn……how to forgive.
Patti Davis, the daughter of Ronald Reagan said that her dad made a lasting impression on her the day after the assassination attempt of 1982.
Patti Davis says: “The following day my father said he knew his physical healing was directly dependent on his ability to forgive John Hinckley. By showing me that forgiveness is the key to everything, including physical health and healing, my father gave me an example of Christ-like thinking.”
Forgiveness is a funny thing –- It warms the heart and cools the sting.
