You Want Me to Forgive Him for THAT?

With the recent allegations swarming Brett Favre about infidelity and sexting a former NY Jets employee, I was very curious to see what his wife, Deanna Favre, was feeling and thinking. She just finished writing a new book with a pastor called "Cure for the Chronic Life," which is a how-to spiritual journey through hopelessness. To promote her book, she was on one of those morning shows, where the anchor asked about how she felt toward her husband's allegations. She simply said her faith has always been the crutch she leaned on through hard times and she has faith. Wow.

In MOMs group, we talked about forgiving our husbands. The Bible is big on forgiveness. See a slew of verses here. The one that seems most powerful to me is Matthew 6:14-15. We are to forgive. Period. It doesn't matter what it is, how much it hurt or how it has changed our life -- as Christians we MUST forgive. Now, my husband's wrong-doings are nil in comparison to what Deanna is going through. My husband forgets to take out the trash when he already announced he would. Or he forgets to bring home a much-needed item from work. Or maybe he just makes an ill-comment or acts non-challant. Instead of reacting, God is putting in my heart a desire to forgive. I remember my husband's personality -- the buttons which set him off, the irritations, the gripes, the attitudes. And only when I can walk in his shoes, do I realize he is just a fallen, sinful person like me. Then I can get rid of the expectations of perfection and truly love him.

When we focus so hard on what our husband ISN'T, we fail to see what he IS.

Now, I know in Deanna's case, sometimes forgiveness is a process and she can't just attribute her husband's behavior as the "way he is." But I believe if we are called to do God's will and forgive, God will always soften people's hearts to do so.