At church we started a new sermon called Relationships Under Construction (hence the blog title). We focused on friendships today. Pastor Marie spoke of Jesus' friends circle and how many of them betrayed Jesus and yet Jesus forgave them and rebuilt those friendships.
This sermon made me think of a friend I had made in Kindergarten. We remained friends up until a few months ago when I found out that she wasn't inviting me to hang out anymore. Instead of having a conversation with her, I told her we aren't friends anymore via text and that was it. Aside from that day, we did wish each other a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year but that was the extent of the conversation. Well today after listening to my Pastor about forgiveness, and fixing the broken friendships, I decided to contact this person. My text read as follows:
"I am so sorry about ending our friendships. My feelings were hurt & I felt like since I have a child now, and I am no longer married, felt left out."
Her reply was:
"Thank you for apologizing and if I would have known you didn't know I would have told you and I don't mind hanging out with you and Daniel. The only reason I do go out is to try to see you cuz I love you and Daniel."
Wow. After all of that, she loves me still. See we all take friendships for granted and when you feel something maybe like I did, being left out, have a conversation. It could have been a real simple fix. I almost lost a 20+ year friendship because I ended it before I even thought to have a conversation.
What a great sermon today we had. Forgiveness is hard, but after you forgive, it feels like a weight is lifted off of your shoulders.