Some things are a labor of love… and honey, forgiveness might be the hardest work we ever do. 💛
This Labor Day, we’re not talking about clocking in, punching out, or taking the day off. We’re talking about the kind of labor that happens inside of us—letting go of resentment, releasing the people who hurt us, forgiving ourselves for what we did when we didn’t know better, and realizing that forgiveness doesn’t mean giving somebody permission to hurt us again.
Because here’s the Southern truth: you can forgive somebody and still not invite them back to the cookout. 👏🏼
Forgiveness isn’t forgetting. It isn’t excusing. And it sure as hell isn’t abandoning your boundaries. Sometimes forgiveness is simply deciding, “I’m not carrying this heavy mess another mile.”
So grab your coffee, sweet tea, or whatever’s in your sober cup and join us for Southern Sober & Sassy: “Labor of Love.” 🎙️
We’re talking forgiveness, freedom, boundaries, and the beautiful work of finally choosing peace.
Here is the prayer Kristy mentioned from the book by Emmet Smith, "The Sermon on the Mount"
"We are not obliged to like anyone; but we are under a binding obligation to love everyone, love, or charity as the Bible calls it, meaning a vivid sense of impersonal good will. This has nothing directly to do with the feelings, though it is always followed, sooner or later, by a wonderful feeling of peace and happiness.
The method of forgiving is this: Get by yourself and become quiet. Repeat any prayer or treatment that appeals to you, or read a chapter of the Bible. Then quietly say, “I fully and freely forgive X (mentioning the name of the offender); I loose him and let him go. I completely forgive the whole business in question. As far as I am concerned, it is finished forever. I cast the burden of resentment upon the Christ within me. He is free now, and I am free too. I wish him well in every phase of his life. That incident is finished. The Christ Truth has set us both free. I’d thank God.” Then get up and go about your business.
On no account repeat this act of forgiveness, because you have done it once and for all, and to do it a second time would be tacitly to repudiate your own work. After-ward, whenever the memory of the offender or the offense happens to come into your mind, bless the delinquent briefly and dismiss the thought. Do this, however many times the thought may come back. After a few days it will return less and less often, until you forget it altogether." -“The Sermon on the Mount” by Emmet Fox.
Much Love , Amy & Kristy
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