Control. The one thing I think everyone wants in their life. Instead, God gave us free will. I was reading the other day and came across a passage that really says this well

“I didn’t have control over what anyone else did. And while God could control anything and everything, He had given His creation the freedom to choose. God could intervene, but then He’d be no more than a master puppeteer. A puppet couldn’t love back. And that was what God asked. His children had to choose whether they’d love Him enough to obey or whether they’d go the other way. I had to accept that God gave everyone the same freedom.” Haley, Design On A Crime by Ginny Aiken

I don’t have control over anyone else, or over what they do, and trying to control them only hurts me We can choose to follow God’s teaching, taken from His Word, or we can choose to attempt to control our lives. He allows that choice, and I believe it saddens Him more than we can imagine or comprehend when we choose the path away from Him.

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” – Colossians 3:12‭-‬15 ESV

Choosing to forgive someone takes the power away from them, and makes their actions weak and incapable of hurting us any longer. Years ago, I heard a song on the radio during a time of deep despair and at a time where my life was completely out of my control. These words are deeply meaningful. It’s called The Key, sung by Steve and Annie Chapman. This is just a tiny taste:

“Now don’t you know the offender

Is rarely the one in pain

Instead the one who will not forgive

Is the one who wears the chains.”

http://www.steveandanniechapman.com

Hope it helps you a little.