Monday, February 8, 2010

The Paper Shredder

As my family continues to organize and remove clutter, we have been using our paper shredder quite regularly. It is such a useful tool for getting rid of all the sensitive trash that we want to eliminate.

Have you ever had trouble letting go of something that causes grief? I am mainly talking about past hurts or grudges. When we ask Jesus to forgive us for something we did wrong, He immediately takes our list of sins and puts them in His paper shredder. They are gone, forever. This is easy for Jesus to do because He is perfect. He doesn’t want anything to get in the way of our relationship with Him.

Jesus encourages us to follow His example and place our grudges we have with others in the shredder. Once everything is shred, we can move on and live a more peaceful life. Take a few moments and make a list of all the hurts you are carrying around inside of you. Write down the names of all the people and all the pain they caused. Make sure not to leave anyone out.

The next step is the fun part. Say a little prayer for all of these people and ask God to bless their lives. Once your prayer is complete, place the paper in the shredder so it can disappear forever. Most of the people on the list don’t even know they hurt you. This little exercise is for your benefit, so you can move on and have a happier life.

If you are feeling especially bold, think of the people in your life that maybe you hurt. Write them a letter or call them and ask them to forgive you. This takes a lot of guts and you may have to do some detective work to find some of these people. Most will be willing to put these hurts in their own shredder.

Keep your shredder handy. New hurts will undoubtedly come up in the future. The sooner you put these hurts in the shredder, the happier you will be.

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