Welcome to the Beautiful View Podcast, where we look for opportunities in life to see a beautiful view on candy. 

And I'm Paul. We couldn't just. Skip over such a huge opportunity to share a powerful story. This episode is being released on Easter weekend and appropriately, we're calling it forgiven. 

Yes, we have all had a situation where we've either had to offer forgiveness to someone or we have had to ask for forgiveness from someone. We're going to discuss today how to live a lifestyle of forgiveness because of the forgiveness that has been offered to each of us. 

Yes. 

We can't wait to share with you today. 

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the beautiful view. 

Seems like spring has sprung. 

Yes, it has. 

There's been a lot happening here over the last couple of weeks as we get ready for camping season. 

Yes, we've been, we've been really busy around here. Tyler has been well. We all have kind of had a hand in it, but he's been baking coffee cakes to raise money to go to Boy Scout camp this summer. So this coffee cake cake recipe is one of my great grandmothers. 

All of us. 

Hmm. 

Yes. 

Original recipes and. 

Yeah. 

We've been doing this for years. Every year we bake, these are all homemade from scratch with the. 

The deeding of the. 

No. OK, so let the yeast rise. Punch it down, do all the things and yeah. So it's been a. 

Yeah. Yes. 

Big deal. So anyway. But we had 48 orders, but so that more than pays for supplies in his camp. And he'll even have a little bit of extra in his camp in his camp fund. I think so. 

A big deal. 

Yes. 

Yeah. We always get an amazing amount of support from the community for Tyler and as someone said to me. 

Yeah. 

That they were very impressed that Tyler wasn't just coming knocking on their door asking for money, he was actually rolling up his sleeves and getting, you know, the cakes made and doing something to raise the money. So they were very impressed with that. So that's. 

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes. Yes, he's a hard worker, so. 

Good. And what else have we been? 

Doing so, we had the alternator. We built for a truck and it's amazing alternator put in and suddenly the headlights are bright and the dash lights are bright and the door locks work and the cruise control works and everything. 

Yes, we did. The lights come on. 

Hey. 

Works air condition. 

Yeah, I mean, we've been chasing down little gremlins on our truck one at a time, but they they were all symptoms of a core problem, which was we didn't have any power coming from the alternator. No, a long a long time ago. 

Yeah. Right. And this isn't a new problem like we should have done this, like probably 7 years ago. 

It's good. It's all good, alright? 

Here we go. 

No squeaky belt. 

I'm just glad. 

Sounds good. 

Wow. 

Good job, babe. 

First time without a squeak. 

But as usual, until it became an issue where like I couldn't get into the truck or you know, the AC completely stopped working when we're about to go to Texas. 

Yeah. 

Until it became an issue that was serious enough, we didn't deal with it, so that's that's run-of-the-mill, you know, that's what we do. And also I've been working on the RV because as we record this, the end of this week, we are going to our local State Park. Yes, just to kind of give it a dry run to make sure everything is. 

Yeah, yeah. How we roll? 

Still. 

Working OK while we can still access. This our sharp and tools and all the things and so you know, while we're still close, we can get those those things sorted out. Yeah. And so I have done maintenance on all of the AC units, all three of them. So they we will need those in Texas. And so I think I think we're almost ready to do this thing. 

Pools. Yeah. You will need those in Texas. And we're looking forward to seeing everybody in Texas. We got some work stuff to do down there. So be a good trip. So let's just jump right into this today. So I'm going to ask. 

Yes. 

We do, yeah. Let's do. 

You a question? Yes. How many times a week do you think? You say that you were sorry. 

Well. 

How many days are there in? 

A week. 

7-7 days in a week, so 432 times on on my rough calculation. 

We joke about this a lot, but I feel like you were always apologizing for some random something, and sometimes it's not even anything. 

Well, it's kind of. The British thing, you know, my mother always taught us to to be quick to apologize, to say all of your please and thank yous. Mm-hmm. And so she kind of, she taught us to be polite. And she drilled that into us from, like when we were little little kids. So I guess it's a it's a hard habit to. 

OK. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, sure. 

Break, but I probably take the sorries to the extreme. 

A little. Yeah, a little. 

Bit. 

So, but you know, really sometimes we recognize immediately when something comes out of our mouth or we do something that we shouldn't have in our conscience, like reprimands us like immediately. And we offer an apology. 

Oh my goodness. Yes. Yes, maybe my conscience is set to like overly sensitive. 

Maybe wouldn't it be nice though, if we could edit like our daily conversations and all the things that we do like we edit our podcast, you know, cut out all the extra chatter and the things that didn't quite come out just the way we wanted them to. And, you know, just only include the things that were well thought out. 

Ohh yeah. Yeah. Yes. 

And kind of the meaningful parts. 

Well, that sounds nice. Well, that that sounds nice, but thankfully. The little red light that's on the. Camera over there. Is not on for our entire life, and so we we we we it would be nice to be able to edit the things we do and say, but we definitely don't need that little red record light on for our entire lives. 

Ohh thank goodness. Mm-hmm. Ohh, Can you imagine these people that do like reality TV and that kind of no I no, that would be awful. Yeah. And I'm sure those are edited too, but yeah, no, that would be awful. And we are by no means experts in this area, but I think it's really healthy to talk about it, right, so. 

Uh. 

Yeah. 

And even preparing for this episode and then talking about this, these kinds of things, they often it often challenges us personally to improve in these areas that we're talking about on our podcast. So and we hope that our conversations that we have also help our listeners too. 

Oh. 

Yes. Yes. So Please remember that while we're offering advice, there are so many times each day that we face challenges in the area of forgiveness and we do not always make the right decisions. So with that in mind, let's all look at how we can live a lifestyle of forgiveness. 

Let's talk about expectations first. We all have expectations every single day of ourselves, of others, of situations. All of those things. 

Yeah, we expect people to act a certain way. We expect to be understood and appreciated, but. When we get to the end of our work days, you know when we sit down because we're now working in different places. I'm working here at the house and you're working down there. When we sit down and compare notes, it seems like the things that always make the top of the list of the moments where something unexpected happened. 

Mm-hmm. 

MHM. Hmm. Yeah, that's true. And every day there are a lot of opportunities to get irritated. Get mad, get. Even or even hold a grudge. It's so easy to get offended these days, isn't it? 

Yes it is. That's probably one of the main ways that life can become really difficult if we're not careful. 

Umm yeah, most of the time it's the small things that get us too. We live in a society that it's quick to place, blame it quick to get angry and quick to vent about the things that bug us. 

Yes, and Facebook makes it so easy to vent, doesn't it? 

Ohh yeah, social media in general is just yeah, it can be brutal, but is that how we should live? We can get our panties in A twist over the silliest things sometimes. But here's the thing. 

Yes. 

Someone can tick? Us off randomly, even in a very minor way. 

MHM. 

And we can often let that get under our skin and it just bugs us all day long. 

Yeah, the original offender might even be completely oblivious to our frustrations. 

Often times, yeah. 

But we can often let it consume our thoughts and ruin our peace. And it's just silly to do that when you think about it. 

Umm. 

That's the thing about holding on to the memory of the point where someone offended us. It's more harmful to us than it is for them. 

Mm-hmm. 

Yeah, that's very true. 

Our friend Mark Riggins actually wrote about this in his very practical book about this topic titled Stuck, and we're gonna include a link to the book in the show notes, and it's a great read. So you. 

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Need. To check it out so he says, forgiveness is deciding to release the other person's debt to you. 

Yeah. 

Do. Hmm. And that's what God did for us. Yeah, that's what you can do for your offender. The keyword in that definition is deciding. It's a decision that you're capable of making. Holding on to past pain is like the little boy at the park sitting on a bench in obvious pain. 

Hmm. 

A man walked by and noticed the boy was in pain, so he asked what was wrong. The boy answered. I'm sitting on a bumblebee. Ohh, then why don't you get up? The man asked. Because I figure I'm hurting him more than he's hurting me. 

Hmm. 

Releasing debt requires you to decide to get off the park bench. 

That's a good illustration. What if we started practicing for giving people for the little things that they do to annoy and irritate and offend us instead of escalating the situation? By notifying everyone that we're ticked off. Ouch. My toes. That is so. Hard. Sometimes I'm not going to lie. 

Yeah, when we get frustrated, the first thing we want to do is vent our frustrations. We want everyone to know about it. 

Yes, let's think about this for a minute. So how does that work? Does that really, you know, being mad about it? Does that really change anything? Probably not. Does it make you feel any better? Not really, because you're just stewing in it, consuming. 

Not really. 

Your thoughts and conversations, yes, that's exactly what it does. 

Yes, but it's so hard to resist the temptation to talk about it. In fact, it can almost be fun to kind of gossip a little, right? Yeah, but it has a way of taking over if we let it. Mm-hmm. The list is endless. Someone cutting you off in traffic or someone cutting in line at the. 

Yeah. Hmm. 

Yes. 

Store. Or maybe someone grabbed that last bag of Verena Street coffee just as you're walking up to get it. 

Ohh no, someone posting something ridiculous or hurtful on social media. The lady at the store that was so rude to you that you had like a an imaginary conversation with her all the way home. All the things that you would have said to her if you thought of them. 

Yes. 

At the time, yeah. 

Yes. 

Just go ahead and forgive them. None of those things are big things, and I believe that if we can get really good at forgiving in the relatively minor, Mm-hmm, everyday things will be in good practice when it comes to the big things, it's easy to talk hypothetical situations. But what if the one who offended you? 

Yes. 

Lives with you? 

Hmm. 

The people that were around the most are the ones that have the most potential to irritate offends, hurt us. 

Mm-hmm. Yes. That's why I keep saying sorry. You know, just in case I'm. I'm sort of like banking the sorries. 

Well, we do spend a lot of time with each other and honestly, I think we expect more out of the people that are closest to us. 

Yes. 

You and just a little disclaimer here, we're not talking about abuse or anything like that if you obviously if you are in a dangerous situation, please seek help. We're talking about disagreements, misunderstandings, miscommunication and those little irritations that we get fired up about sometimes. 

Yeah. Yes. 

Mm-hmm. 

People will always disappoint and irritate us, even loved ones, just as we disappoint and irritate them. Rather than holding on to those irritations or using them as verbal weapons in an argument, what if we aim for peace and just forgive quickly and easily? Easier said than done sometimes. 

Mm-hmm. Hmm. 

Yeah. 

If it was only that easy, so here's the deal. The key to the whole thing is practice. You don't get good at anything without practice. You can't just sit down at a piano with no knob. 

If it was only that easy. Yes. 

Image of how to read music or anything like that and expect to play at an expert level. That's not how that works. You have to learn a few notes and then those notes come together. You move into blending those into chords and then the chords you add onto that you add harmony and then eventually you can play. 

Yes. 

Beautiful music. It's the same way with forgiveness and learning how to forgive if you do the little things and then you just gradually build on that, it gets easier. 

Mm-hmm. And becomes a beautiful malady. 

A beautiful melody, yeah. 

Yes. Maybe we start our path to a life of forgiveness with the basic small things we forgive the guy for taking the last bag of Verena Street coffee just before we got to it. We forgive the person who let go of their shopping cart in the parking lot and it rolled into our. Truck. 

Oh, there's that. 

Yeah. So maybe we forgive the semi truck driver. And he bears down on the back of us while we're in a single length construction zone, and it is a 50 mile an hour limit. 

Yeah, that is frustrating. 

Mm-hmm. 

When we practice forgiving the little things, we get better at forgiving our spouse. When words are spoken out of frustration or misunderstanding, I know you never do that. We get better at offering forgiveness in general to others. 

Two, let's recognize the value of forgiveness. Let's understand that forgiveness is not about condoning harmful actions, but about freeing yourself from the burden of anger and resentment. 

Hmm. 

Yeah, sometimes holding on to those things so tightly, it kind of almost keeps us captive. It can do more harm to us when we. Don't forgive forgiving doesn't mean the other person didn't do something wrong. 

Yes. Yeah, that's actually one of the things that Mark points out in his book. It takes effort to forgive properly in a way that has a positive impact on our relationships with others and on our own mental and emotional health. He writes that it can be tempting to shortcut the process by just forgetting about it. 

MHM. 

Hmm. 

I think he meant that there's a process to go through for those times when something serious has happened that's weighing on us. 

Yeah, we don't need to. Dwell on every last thing. Sometimes we don't need to sweat the small stuff, right? 

No, no, I don't think that's what he is. Meaning for us to do. And there's some very helpful things in his book. Like a lot of times, we ignore the part that we played in what happened that went wrong. Like sometimes there's some things that you know, we need to take responsibility for and recognize that we probably helped lead to that bad situation and and then when we do that, we can sort of like get ourselves on the same page with the other person. 

Umm. Sure. Mm-hmm. 

And then to release that person and forget. Goodness. And it's not a matter of just forgetting that anything happened at all that you know, there's generally something that happened, that both parties need to learn. 

Chance. 

From I think sometimes it's the offender is just reacting to something else. So oftentimes, though, we're forgiving someone. 

Mm-hmm. 

You know, we need to ask for forgiveness too, because it's oftentimes a, you know, a chain reaction. So #3 is, forgive yourself. Forgiveness isn't just about forgiving others. It's also about forgiving yourself for the mistakes that you make and your shortcomings. When I mess up, I'm often harder on myself because I'm disappointed in my behavior. 

Yes. 

Sometimes it's hard to let that go and to move. Forward, but it's necessary. 

When I hear words come out of my mouth, like when I'm immediately regretting what I just said, I often want to say that's not what I meant. You know, like that's not. That's not a reflection of where my heart is at, but it's too late. Once the words leave your. 

Yeah. 

Mouth, you know. 

Yeah. And then it's hard because it's hard to backtrack and say, ohh, I didn't mean to say that or that didn't come out right or because they're like, yeah, right. You just said it so. But I I'm guilty of that too. What comes out of my mouth sometimes is not. I wish that we could, you know. 

Yeah. 

Yeah, right. But you just said it didn't. 

Type things out, you know, in, in and scripts it a little bit better in these heated conversations when things just like and I wish I could like edit it kind of like the podcast. Like we talked about earlier. 

And scripted a little better. Yeah, yeah, I know. I could be hard on myself at times, but I do realize that I have that trait, and if I'm in a good place, then I I've learned I can laugh at myself. You. 

Mm-hmm. 

Know. Yeah, that's a healthy thing to be able to laugh at yourself. 

Yes. So 4 we can focus on the future. So instead of dwelling on the past, focus on building a future that's filled with love, peace and forgiveness. 

Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, oftentimes when we get frustrated or irritated or whatever, we get stuck in this cycle of like conversations just talking about it constantly and over and over and over it when you forgive someone, though, and you lay that down. 

MHM. 

Going on over. It. 

Mm-hmm. And then you step over that line, it breaks. It breaks the cycle. And then you can move forward toward bigger and better things. 

The cycle. 

Mm-hmm. Yep. MHM. Yeah. 

When we get stuck in a place in the past where an offence occurred, then we start missing out on all the good things that are happening right now. In fact, we might even miss the good things that our original offender is currently doing and that further imprisons them in the identity. We believe that they've earned. 

Yeah. Hmm. Sometimes you know if if you've got someone in your past that has offended you and maybe there are a certain type of person like a type, A personality or whatever, you know, strong leader and someone has has hurt you. 

Yeah. Strong leader. 

MHM. 

So and and you come across someone else later in life that fits that same kind of has that same personality. 

That fits. Same. 

You we can be. Really brutal in putting those people in a box when they haven't even done anything. 

Yeah, yeah, I think I think when we get hurt like the natural thing to do is is to put up some walls against that. 

To it so. 

It's. Mm-hmm. 

So, you know, we've been hurt, we've been offended, whatever. And we're like, I'm never gonna let that happen to me again. But when we do that, that changes us into into something that we're not supposed to be. And and and it start starts putting us on a defensive against other people. 

Mm-hmm. 

MHM. 

And I mean there can be strong leaders who have good intentions and actually want to do good things. And if we start treating them the same way as we've experienced in the past, then we're missing. Out. 

Yeah, that's very true. The Lord's Prayer is one of the most quoted prayers in the Bible. I remember when I was in high school and before every basketball game, the whole team would gather around and we would hold hands and we would say the Lord's Prayer together. I wonder if teams still do that these days, I don't know. 

Mm-hmm. 

Within this prayer is an equally recognizable phrase. It says, and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. 

Mm-hmm. After sharing this example of how we should all pray with his disciples, Jesus concludes with a cautionary note. He says for if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. 

Recalling Jesus's words, Peter later inquired Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister, who sends against me up to seven times. He thought he was being very generous with that one, and Jesus answered. I tell you, not 7 times, but 70 times. Seven times, Jesus was basically saying that the extension of our forgiveness should be infinite. There is no limit. 

It's about living a life of forgiveness. 

Hmm. 

Likewise, no sin is too great for God's forgiveness. His grace surpasses anything that we can do wrong. It is limitless. 

Yeah, this Easter weekend we would like to encourage you to consider the sacrifice that Jesus made on your behalf and to seek God's forgiveness. He will grant it. Jesus died a criminals death on a cross, but that isn't the end. Of the story. 

It isn't. He came back to life on the third day. The gift of salvation that he offers is just that. It's a free gift. The debt has already been paid. The forgiveness is free for the take. You can simply confess your sins, ask for his forgiveness, and he will come into your heart and be your savior right here and right now. His grace covers everything. You will be forgiven. It's that simple. 

Yes, happy Easter everyone. Jesus is risen and we are forgiven, and that is today's beautiful view. 

Yes. Amen. Turn left. 

Thank you for joining us today. Our hope is always to inspire and encourage our listeners. So we hope this episode has given you some things to think about, whether you need to forgive someone in your life or you need to ask for forgiveness if you would like to have a further. Conversation with us about the forgiveness that Jesus offers, please reach out to us. We would love to continue that conversation with you. 

If you like what we do here at the Beautiful View Podcast, you can show your appreciation by becoming a supporting member for only $5 a month. We'll send you a Members only Beautiful View podcast sticker and a weekly encouraging newsletter to your inbox. Your support helps cover our production costs. 

Yep. 

The link to sign up is in our show notes. 

Yeah. Also be sure to follow a Beautiful View podcast on Facebook and. Instagram those links will also be in our. Show notes. 

As we conclude each podcast, we always like to give the topic for the next episode. So what will we be talking about next time? 

MHM. Well, on our next episode, it's going to be called breaststrokes. The faith we are going to be interviewing our friend, Ryan Dalglish, who is an author, a pastor in a very talented artist. He brings a creative flair to everything he does. It's going to be a really interesting conversation. 

OK. OK. Yes, I'm. I'm so looking forward to that. If you want to see some of his artwork right now, then you can check out the link in our show notes. 

Ah. Thank you once again for joining us today. We hope you have a great day and remember to always keep an eye open for opportunities in life to see a beautiful. 

Yes.