Posted on by Kristina Knowles

The Gift of Forgiveness…

Is the greatest gift of all.

Have you ever been hurt, has someone broken your heart, did they trick you or lie to you? Yes, me too but I learned that forgiveness is the only way to live a happy, fulfilling, more meaningful life. Why or how you ask? It’s because living any other way will leave you bitter, mean, nasty, unhappy and not fun to be around. You will loose sleep, begin to age faster, your thoughts won’t be your thoughts because you will be preoccupied with hurt.

I’ve experienced my own hurt in my life, I thought I was over it but I quickly realized I wasn’t while attending weekly Mass one morning. It was so eye opening, it hit me like a brick. It was the revelation I needed to hear. I personally know God wants us to go to church for this very reason, you will hear or experience something that will directly help you or someone you know.

In I John 1: 4-9, you will notice that God is light and there is no darkness in Him in any way. God also wants us to be filled with joy, so beautiful. So when we fully admit that we are Christians, He believes us. God wants us to fellowship with Him, together and know that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and guilt, so awesome. We must admit and confess our sins, we need to stop living in sin and not lead other’s to sin, as well.

When we live in the hurt, we live in darkness. Yes, it’s true. It may be confusing but let me help you understand. Hurt is sadness, sadness is pain, pain is hurt. Hurt is Satan, Satan is the enemy. God doesn’t plan a bad life for you, in fact, it’s the opposite. God wants joy, happiness, greatness and most important LOVE for you and me. Sin is unforgiveness, letting the hurt continue to reck your life is like letting Satan take up camp in your life.

Please let today be the day you decide that the hurt from your past will not continue to rule your future. I am so grateful to God for letting me wake up today so I can share this good news with you. I pray you help someone that might need to read this today as well. I am here for you if you need me…

Posted on by Kristina Knowles

I hate the hate against my Race…

the Human Race.

I recently put this title on my Facebook page. I got a few likes but no one questioned what I meant which was fascinating to me for so many reasons. First, because I am Bi-Racial, so which race was I referring to and secondly because in today’s climate people will speak out and ask but this time everyone kept quiet, did the comment go over everyone’s head or maybe because no one cared. All suitable reasons to me but I remained curious.

So let’s get back to that title, I don’t like hate. I really don’t like even typing the word hate, either. However, I have lived over 40 years on this great big beautiful planet called Earth to know better. I know that no matter who you are, how big or small, how tall or short, how beautiful or not so beautiful society says you are, how the color on your skin shows up; everyone has dealt with hate. Yes, it’s true, I have seen it with my own eyes day in and day out.

Some of you would like to think that one religion, creed, sex, color, ethnic group has it worse over the other but you are wrong. You are too blind to believe the truth because it’s easier for you to hide behind the negative agenda instead of embracing the truth, we all have felt hate in some form or another. I would think that this type of revelation would open the doors of happiness and love, instead of more hate, more violence. But again, that would be too easy and we must do things the hard way and continue to divide us all into groups. Instead of agreeing that we all have been hurt or hated against and it had nothing to do with race. Yes, I wrote it, nothing to do with RACE!!!

There is no denying that by living primarily with my beautiful Caucasian, Irish Mother, you might think I would hear some negative comments about me or my brother, no. Instead I heard the opposite, all compliments and praise. Maybe you might think I must have heard some racially motivated comments while spending weekends with my handsome African American, Native American Father, right!? No, wrong again, I felt safe, never afraid of who I was or what I looked like.

Don’t get me wrong, I saw something awful. I saw hate, in forms that had nothing to do with religion, creed, sex, color, ethnic group or racism but pure ignorance. I have straight friends and gay friends, I have friends who would be considered obese and friends who get teased that they have anorexia, I have friends who are too tall for being a woman and friends who are too short for being a man. I have friends that have been told they talk “black” and friends that “talk white”. I have friends that have hair that’s too curly or too straight, too long or too short. I have friends that feel too smart and friends who don’t feel smart enough, I have friends who have been called Nerdy, Jock, Princess, Goody-Goody, the list goes on and on and on. Does this resonate with any of you? We have been labeling people for decades without any of these labels having to do with race, just hate.

I am just asking you the next time you want to classify something as racism you might want to call it what it really is…hate. I have heard conversations of groups of women put other women down…hate. I have heard family members tease and make fun of other family members, that is not kind or loving but…hate. I have sat at a dinner table to listen to men put another colleague down, again hate. I have witnessed children bully other children, again not because of the color of their skin but pure…hate.

Don’t you get it, the world wants us to be at odds with each other, to create this divide against one another to promote hate and not love. Why? Because Satan would like nothing more than to have you let him move into your home and kick God out. God is love, God doesn’t ask us to hate but to love. And we are raising a society of people who don’t or can’t love themselves, self-hate is rampant. We need to lift each other up, stop the hate and start to love ourselves. I will close with racism does exist but more often than not, it’s truly just hate.

Don’t hate someone because they are different, love them because they are.