Lisa Weidknecht is the blogger at Planet Weidknecht. She’s a wife in a blended family, mother of three adult children, retired childcare provider, and a self-published author. Her family-friendly blog features life-improvement posts about home, family, travel, food, fashion, reviews, and giveaways. Her education includes an Associate’s in Marketing/Merchandising, a Bachelor’s in Child Development/Family Relationships, and a Master’s degree in Education. She currently lives in central Texas with her husband Johnny and her dog Buddy.
I’m enjoying the breezy, balmy days of a Texas autumn by taking my daily walks with my dog Buddy in the afternoons. We always walked in the early morning during the summer to avoid the stickiness of the afternoon. Speaking of stickiness, the thought came to me that forgiveness is often something we grant to others when we feel we’ve been wronged in some way. That inner voice of resentment can be very sticky. Being gracious enough to forgive someone is often difficult, but it truly can set your heart free when you do forgive. But what about forgiving ourselves?
Forgiving yourself can be even more difficult. Especially when you’ve wronged yourself in a way that affects all parts of your life. I think of all the things I’ve done in my past that weren’t intended to make me a better person. My most prominent self-sin right now is my weight. Last month when I stepped on the scale, I realized I weighed more than I have ever weighed in my entire life, even more than when I was nine months pregnant. How did I let that happen?? Standing there staring (and glaring) at myself in the mirror, I decided to forgive myself and make a clean start.
Over the past month, I’ve focused on doing the right things for myself. I am eating better foods, eating less foods overall, walking more consistently, biking further, and practicing self-affirmations that I can lose the weight. Guess what? I’ve lost 17 pounds in the last month! By moving forward and not looking back to who I was before, I’m learning to better embrace myself with forgiveness. If only we all had the forgiving capacity of a dog, standing ready to lick our face with unconditional love!
(This post was first published by Lisa Weidknecht at Planet Weidkneckt)
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