A talk with my sister

My lovely

"You are not going to like what I'm about to tell you." She said in her gentle yet resolved way. My mind raced through a thousand things she could want to tell me that deserve so much ado. "I've prayed for you about this, and I feel that God is telling me to tell you, so I'll just tell you so it will no longer be on me."

She went on to tell me how she noticed that I took offense at the littlest of things and held grudges for way to long. "I have seen you mature so much in your walk with God"{internal pat on the back}, "and I feel like this is an area that you should already be over."
If you are the only picture of God that a person sees, and they see you holding on to offenses like that, won't they maybe think that God is that way? That He is not a forgiving God. In life, not everyone is going to care about you or your feelings, therefore, not everyone will apologize, you need to be able to move past their offense in spite of a lack of apology...
There's so much more to what she said than I can write here, but I'll write this poignant analogy that she used.

"Okay, say that rain are the offenses that people throw at you. In life there is going to be rain, people are going to do some... you could be a duck and let it wash right off you into the river that you're floating on (issues that you have overcome), then the very rain meant to weigh you down will add to the river and take you even higher (because the river rises). But if you are like a cup; always holding on to offenses, very soon, you'll begin to drown, and the river (issues that you had already overcome) start coming back and overwhelming you."

See, just as love brings along joy, peace and all those awesome things, unforgiveness brings its cohorts; depression, bitterness (and a bunch of other things).
*hugs*
Love keeps no record of wrong (1 Corinthians 13:5)
Matthew 6:12: And forgive us our trespasses even as we forgive those who trespass against us.

P.S: To officially say it again, Gege, I am so thankful for a sister like you, and I thank God from the depths of my heart for caring about me so much as to place this on your heart, thank you for bearing it, praying with me and showing me how to truly live this out. You are the most forgiving person I've ever met, and I am privileged to get to do life with you. Love you! Mwah!