Today I read a blog post from a young man from Vision, Kyle! It was on overcoming bitterness. It is how he has learned to forgive his dad. I am going to post his thoughts and then give you links to other posts that you might read!
This was written by Travis Snode on how to deal with bitterness!
Turning bitterness into forgiveness
That will do for now.
Here is the great article by Kyle that will bless you:
Finally.
This morning and last night, I read Proverbs 1 and 2. What the Lord told me, through those chapters, was that if I really want to be a man of God, and no longer a boy, that I needed to start applying His words to my heart.
Well, and I say all of the following things to the glory of God. I don’t want to come off in any way that I’m giving glory to myself, or trying to say that I did anything at all, because it was ALL God, and nothing I did.
In 7th grade, because of some things, I started to get angry and bitter towards my father. It just kept getting worse from there. I got to a point where I hated him, where I prayed that I would never see him again, that my mum would divorce him, or something. I just wanted him out of my life.
The longer I carried my bitterness and hatred, the worse it got. I got to a point where I was happy to see him suffer, and liked watching bad things happen to him.
I treated him like less than dirt. I didn’t respect him. I didn’t honor him like a son should honor a father, and I sure didn’t glorify God in the way I treated him. And I knew I should treat him better. God kept telling me to forgive him.
And the dislike, which I carried everywhere, really hindered me. It was impacting me a good bit.
But today, after 7 years of bitterness, and not forgiving my father, God did a mighty work in my life. It took me a while to allow God to work in my life, but I called my dad and forgave him. I told him I was wrong, and that I forgave him. And it wasn’t that hard. All I did was dial him on my mobile, and then talk.
It’s amazing how easy things are when they’re the things God wants us to do.
Maybe you don’t understand how big this really is, but if you grew up in my parent’s house, or in my old church, you might understand this, and I pray that through it the Lord would be lifted up and exalted.
It’s taken a whole, too long. Years more that it should have, but I finally, and only because God worked in my heart, forgave my father. It’s only because a group of men, whom I thank so much (KT, WAG, TH, WC, RT) for preaching the Bible, and letting God use them, that I am where I am now.
Thank you, Lord, for growing me, and helping me to slowly begin the path of being a man.
