DEALING WITH YOUR FEELINGS

 How can you overcome your hurt feelings? One way is by giving yourself time to heal. After receiving medical care, a person who has been severely injured needs time to heal physically. In similar way, we may need time to heal emotionally before we are ready to forgive someone from the heart.

Pray, asking Jehovah to help you to be forgiving. Ann, mentioned earlier, explains how prayer helped her. She says: "I asked Jehovah to forgive each of us in the family for things we did not handle well. Then I wrote a letter to my dad and his new wife and told them that I had forgave them." Ann admits that doing so was not easy. But she says: "I hope that imitating Jehovah's forgiveness, my dad and his wife will be moved to learn more about Jehovah. 

Trust Jehovah, not your feelings. (Read Proverbs 3:5, 6.) Jehovah always knows what is best for us.  (Isaiah 55:8, 9) And he will never ask us to do something that will harm us. Thus, when he encourages us to be forgiving, we can confident that so will benefit us. (Psalm 40:4; Isaiah 48:17, 18) On the other hand, if we trust our feelings, we may never be able to forgive.  (Proverbs 14:12l; Jeremiah 17:9) Naomi, quoted earlier, says: "At first, I felt justified for not forgiving my husband for viewing pornography. I was afraid that he would hurt me again or that would forget how damage he caused. And I reasoned that Jehovah understood my feelings. But I began to realize that just because Jehovah understands my feelings, it does not mean that he agrees with the. He knows how I feel and that it takes time to heal but also wants me to be forgiving.

Next time: CREATE POSITIVE FEELINGS

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