Forgiving vs. Forgeting

With the pain of a broken friendship comes the time when you need to forgive.  But forgiving is not the same as forgetting.  It's much harder to forget that hurt that goes so deep.  I recently realized this when I felt my blood pressure rising over the simplest thing....someone who heard the rumors about me will no longer even look at me.  I guess it shouldn't bother me.  After all, were they really a friend if they didn't even ask my side of the story?  Needless to say, I felt myself grow agitated, and had no idea that this person could still indirectly do this to me.  The pain is obviously much deeper than even I thought possible.  I still have so many unshed tears.  I don't take friendships lightly, so to have something thrown away so easily really bothers me.  Don't get me wrong, there are 2 sides to every story.  The hurt is not so much from what happened but the things that were said about me.  They hurt greatly and I lost many 'friends' because of those hurtful words. 

So, how do you forget?  How do you get to a level of not letting it bother you?  You see, we go to the same church, so its unavoidable to never have to see/hear about this person again.  God has taught me much through this trial, but I still haven't learned how to let go of the hurt.  I just keep praying that someday God will take the pain and replace it with understanding.

A Heart for Adoption

My friend Kimmie from Over the Moon with Joy has an amazing heart for orphans. They have 7 children (6 have been adopted) and are in the process of adopting their next daughter from Ethiopia.  I would like to help them raise the money they need to bring this little girl home to her new family.  I will donate all proceeds from the sales of either my patterns, and the afghan(s) I have for sale, to their adoption fund.  If you would like to help Kimmie out you can purchase any of my patterns directly in my etsy store. Make sure you visit Kimmie and tell her you made a purchase from me (Kristine) to help support her and/or leave me a note when you checkout in my store.  I'll make sure the funds go directly to bringing this little girl home to her new family.  Here is a picture of some of the items I have added.  I will be adding more soon.

Bubble Textured pattern

Fan Squares pattern

Quick & Easy Blocks pattern

Shades of Blue pattern

Post-Stitch Heart afghan or pattern

Preemie Basket-Weave pattern

Quilt Blocks pattern

Textured Star pattern

Purple Patchwork pattern

Winter Warmth afghan or pattern

Autumn Bloom Afghan is for sale.

Pattern will be available shortly.

Friendship

I have not written anything in a long time. I wasn't sure what to say, if anything. Life was busy, but who's isn't these day? So I wrote nothing. But recently I have felt to pick up my blog again, unsure of where to start. And then it hit me.....

I started this blog because I felt God was changing things up in my life. One of those things being friendships. I have had a hard time, more than once this year, over the loss of, what I felt, was a good friendship. I tend to take things personally even though I try not to. It just breaks my heart that a friend would willingly end a friendship without trying to work things out. Because I think too much I wanted to know what the true meaning of friendship was. I decided a good place to start was Websters, which says:

a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard

a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile

Those definitions lead me to believe I have lost two friendships, which was not really what I wanted to hear. So I decided a better place to turn was to the bible. The very first verse that came to mind was:

A friend loves at all times. ~Proverbs 17:17

Which leads me back to my struggle......Have I lost these friends for good? I do trust God and I know He will help me walk through this, but it doesn't make the path any easier. It does, however, have me turning to Him for guidance and direction.........Maybe I should have been blogging all along.