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Tearing Up The IOU

I am a wife and mother of three grown sons, and have been married to a great guy for almost 27 years. We've been in ministry together all these years, sharing the pain and ultimate healing of so many. But along that journey, I admit that I've encountered a few battle scars of my own.
Several years ago, a very dear friend went through a tough time in his personal life. Instead of seeing his pain for what it was, he chose to hurt others in an effort to make himself feel better. We must have seemed like pretty good targets, because he began to spread some pretty vicious lies about both of us. These things hurt me deeply, and try as I might, my anger only served to make me bitter. For four years my husband pursued healing in the friendship with this man—something that I felt he did not deserve—and although the man would not see his way to ever admit he'd done anything to hurt us, the anger and pain I felt began to fester in my life like a cancer.
I was very physically sick at the time, so ill with asthma and on so much medication that I could not function or take care of my family. I did not see a correlation between my unforgiveness and my sickness. I had to let this go. In fact, I felt very impressed to bake this man his favorite cake and take it to his home in a show of forgiveness and healing of our fractured relationship. I carried that fresh apple cake around for four days (yikes!). On day four I pulled into his driveway to do what I knew I had to do in order to be free.
As I was walking up the sidewalk, I heard a very strong inner voice tell me that I was to take all the blame for the break down of our friendship and ask him to forgive me! At first I wanted to stop dead in my tracks, turn around, get in my car, go home and eat the whole cake by myself! But courage rose up in me. I tore up the I.O.U.
The man received my cake. He did not apologize or share the blame. I thanked him and left. Ten days later I received a complete healing from asthma! I have been medication free for almost twelve years. A few months later, my husband tried once again to reach out to this old friend. Still he did not admit any fault but my husband and I were both free! Over time, the relationship has healed—not exactly the same, of course, but we are both wiser and stronger for it. I no longer hold onto hurt and unforgiveness. I want to live a long and healthy life and have joy and not regret. Life is so awesome!

Story was submitted anonymously