My Spirit

Over the last 2 weeks I've had something burning in my heart. Forgiveness. It's a daily necessity if I'm going to live a full, enjoyable life. It's a requirement to enter God's Kingdom one day. It's crucial to maintain relationship with those I love and care about. So...forgiveness is pretty important in my book.
What I have been thinking about is how somewhere along the road I forgot to choose to forgive. I used to preach this principle and then I found myself praying, "God, help me forgive..." Recently I was reminded we must purpose to forgive others and ourselves. So I have once again changed my prayers to, "God, I purpose and I choose to forgive... Forgive me for carrying this bitterness and resentment..." And, WOW! I really feel the freedom working deep within my spirit. I love getting "clean" from all the things that separate me from intimacy with my Savior. I love His goodness and faithfulness to keep reminding me of things I wish I would remember. Ahhhh, to bask in His goodness.
I was also thinking the other day about how I've never seen a dead body (I know, I know...I think about a lot of weird, random things. I will spare you most of these.) But then I remembered I have seen 2 dead bodies. And I remembered how surprised I was to find that when the spirit of a man is gone, it truly is not that person any more. On the 2 occasions I viewed these bodies, I was anticipating "saying good-bye" to them, but what I found was that "they" were long gone and their bodies were a very vague and loose resemblance of who I knew these people to be. Realizing this manifest all the things I was taught about "inner beauty", the reality of the spiritual realm and my choice in how to live my life.
Moral of this blog: It is worth spending time, energy, emotional strength, and diligence to develop my spirit; keeping it "clean" from unforgiveness, cultivating relationship with a God who will reign for eternity, and building friendships with His favorite creation: people. One day my aged, worn body will remain behind as my spirit soars to glorious eternity...finally at home.