Be More Like Him

"And when you stand to pray, forgive whatever you may hold against anyone, so that your divine Father may also forgive your sins." - Mark 11:25-26

The purpose of praying is more to allow God to flow through us and make us more like Him, rather than just about asking for things. That being said, I have become very, very aware of my relationships with other people, how I treat them, what I say to and about them, and especially how I catch myself feeling about people, more importantly, people I have had conflicts with. I've found it's really hard to pray with these feelings because during prayer, I can only think of them, and even if I'm pretty confident that the other person is wrong, I feel God telling me over and over again to forgive and let it go. At first it's hard to do, but God has been giving me the gift to not see the person as the wrong they've done to me, but now I see them separately… I see the person, a child of God, and then I see the effects of sin in that person. In this way I've grown to not want revenge or brush the person off, but I've learned to pray for them and hate the sin that has such a negative hold on their life.
Whenever we're wronged, it's easy to feel entitled to bash that other person and be rude to them… but Bishop Fulton Sheen has said that when we're upset with ourselves… let's say we messed something up really bad and we go around saying how annoyed we are with ourselves… don't we still treat ourselves pretty nicely? No matter how mad we are with ourselves, if we walked into a room don't we still pick out the most comfortable place to sit, or if given a menu treat ourselves to a delicious plate? We're able to excuse ourselves and to be more like God in our prayer life, we need to excuse those who have wronged us as well… not let them step all over us… but not see them as the sin that's hurt us, but as someone, who like us, needs cleansing of certain sins.

Today's Prayer:
Father in Heaven, I know how You want me to treat others, but give me the heart to do it. I know You want me to forgive and to love, but give me the strength and humility to do it. Make my heart more like Yours and I know I will be at peace. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen.