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