"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."- John F. Kennedy

I have sort of been in a blog funk. Nothing has really jumped out at me, thus the poorly written blogs lately. Sorry, this one is going to be good. I was eating my famous hamburger with my family today, a request of our daughter, reading the famous Sunday Tennessean newspaper, when the above quote rang within my ears. "Forgive your enemies, but never forget their name." Spoken by the late John F. Kennedy. Forgiveness allows a person to move on with their life. Forgiveness is the only way to stop another person from controlling your happiness, contentment, joy. It means to let go of the past, reach forward to a new day, the freshness of no longer being burdened by people who have hurt you, abused you, betrayed you, or whatever ill was caused by them. Holding onto the past causes depression, bitterness and despair. Forgiveness is sometimes the only way to recover from unspeakable hurt. Let me be clear about forgiveness and boundaries. The difference between the two is not giving the person who harmed you your complete trust...that takes time and healing plus evidence. Continuing to look inside your life and blame others for whatever is wrong is nothing more than a roller coaster that will not stop. Eventually, you become dizzy, physically ill, fearful, unable to focus, and hopeless... thinking the ride will never stop. But, when you do finally decide to let go of the desperate grip on the bar holding you down in the ride of resentment, you can exit the ride to the right. At first, your walk will be unbalanced, you may even fall down, after all, you have been going around in circles for so long, it feels unnatural to walk straight with your head up. Just keep on. The farther you walk away from your hurts, the less control over your life. You have to trust God to make everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, OK, while realizing you can't control other people. At first, I did not like this quote, but I understand what he was saying.... I need to know the names I need to let go of.