Being a Forgiver

Watching the Goldman family in the courtroom today as OJ Simpson was being sentenced in a case unconnected to that infamous one, I wondered as the sister of the deceased seemed to have grown thinner and more wiry over these many years, how life was treating her. She has always seemed so bitter, creating a furrowed brow and intense harshness around her eyes and mouth developing into ungraceful lines, indicative of perhaps a heart of unforgiveness.

Myrlie Evers, the wife of the slain civil rights leader Medger Evers, seemed to have the same consuming bitterness. Some years ago whenever I heard Mrs. Evers speak of the event or those who were released whom she believed had murdered her husband on their doorstep, there was a narrowness in her eyes, a tightness around her mouth, and a harshness in her speech that also seemed indicative of a heart of unforgiveness.

Unforgiveness has a detrimental affect on those who do not forgive.

A forgiving heart is health to the one who forgives.