Forgive us our trespasses...

For the longest time, I took that line literally, the "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" line from The Lord's Prayer.  Because "trespass", in my puny human mind, meant being on someone's property without permission.  And, not having grown up "in the church" as they say, I never really learned what The Lord's Prayer meant, line by line, nor did I ever really think about what the Lord's Prayer meant, line by line.  The only reason I even knew it was because (and I may have mentioned this before) there was a plate on a shelf in my parents' dining room on which it was inscribed, and I memorized it from there.

So? Some kids memorized it from Sunday School, and I memorized it from a decorative plate. We are not the same. ha! ha!

Anyway, of course another version of this prayer uses the word "sins" in place of "trespasses" which makes the meaning a tad bit clearer for those of us who did not study the meaning behind the words way back when, so there's that option as well.  I'm pretty sure the plate version had "trespasses" which is the whole point behind my opening sentence.  I generally pictured a bunch of kids sneaking into someone's yard, but when I Google-searched "trespassers" the image that I posted is one that came up, and since I like horses, there you go.

My ultimate point being, this has been on my mind and my heart a lot lately. Did I say "a lot"? I meant a LOT.  The whole idea of forgiving other people for the things they've done because God has forgiven me for the things I've done.  And lately, after years and years and years of me trying to grasp this concept, it has started to stick.  It's weird.  I'll, like, start to get mad inside at someone for something inconsequential and then I'll get this other thought like, Yeah but does it really matter? In the grand scheme of things? God has forgiven YOU for [insert literally anything here], you can let this go.  And then I usually do.  Or, more often than not, the anger turns to something else. Something like wonder.  Something like analysis.  Something like introspection, is that a word? Something that makes me look past the surface and think about what exactly it is that makes that person act or react the way they did.  

It is both fascinating and scary at the same time.  

And on that note, I have to get back to work! TTYL