You had said your memory, when it comes to all of the women you took, was gone.
Our memory is not.
In your words, you said that they didn't mean anything to you.
But she meant everything to us.
She was a mother. She was a wife. She was a sister. And we miss her.
Gary Ridgway sat there, stone-faced as victims’ relatives damned him and mocked him.
He's an animal. I wish for him to have a long, suffering, cruel death.
He's going to go to hell and that's where he belongs.
But then the emotionless facade finally cracked
when the father of one of his victims appeared to surprise him.
Mr. Ridgway, there are people here that hate you.
I'm not one of them.
You've made it difficult to live up to what I believe.
And that is what GOD says to do.
And that's to forgive.
You are forgiven, sir.
The strength to forgive comes from surrender
to the Author of forgiveness.
“Father, forgive them,”
Jesus said on the Cross (Luke 23:34).
“Father, forgive them.”
The strength to forgive comes from surrender to the Author of forgiveness.
I cannot muster the strength within myself to forgive.
If I forgive of myself, there will be conditions attached.
There will be a limit.
There will be a timeframe I put according to the gravity of wrong done to me.
If I forgive in my own strength, I will still be battling in my heart
even if I’ve released it with my mouth.
The strength to forgive from the heart is not in this flesh.
It’s not in your senses.
It's not in your own power and might.
It comes from surrender.
If you're struggling with forgiveness, stop struggling with surrender.