Becoming Better - Starting with Forgiveness

Today is the first day of my life as it is a new day. Today, I am called to become better. So how does one become better?

I am making a list and checking it twice (it's the Christmas Season and Santa Claus is popular, good, kind, fair, just, generous, loving and has all the good characteristics I would like to have minus the weight issue). The Sweet Potato Queen says keep your husband chunky so he will not even be tempted to wander and wonder. So maybe even Santa's weight issue is really not an issue as everyone knows Santa loves his Mrs. Claus and goes home to the North Pole.

Enough humor and back to my list -

1. I will forgive harms (real and perceived) done to me by others. I will let bygones be bygone. I will try harder and with God's help let the past be the past. I will forgive as I am called to forgiveness. There is a difference between forgiveness and forgetting. This does not mean I will forget and act foolishly and place my self in the way of physical, emotional or spiritual harm.

2. I will strive harder to see the other person's point of view. There are two sides to every story. However, there is only one truth. And truth prevails. I will not agree with you when you are wrong. Two wrongs never make a right. I could agree with you in a spirit of niceness and solidarity when you are wrong; but, that would only make both of us wrong. A pox upon all of us for this type of thinking, getting along and not doing the right thing.

3. I will strive harder to be cooperative and collaborative. This means I work with people of the same thinking, spirit and commonality of goals. A popular misquote is, "Peace on earth and good will to men!". The message from the Bible actually is, "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will". (Luke 2:14). There is a difference, exact words have exact meanings. Things are ordered for a reason. First things first. It's easy to twist things to make things more popular and suit a modern interpretation that come from our culture. 

4. And more. I will continue to update this list as I examine my life.