{"id":543,"date":"2020-08-29T05:26:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-29T05:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oluwatoyosiabikoye.com\/?p=543"},"modified":"2024-06-10T09:27:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T09:27:08","slug":"forgiveness-will-make-you-lol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/forgiveness-will-make-you-lol\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgiveness will make you lol."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Forgiveness will make you lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I remember when I was in the university, our Constitutional Law professor had this written on her door &#8216;I am not religious, but I love the Lord&#8217;. This caption was ridiculous to me at the time, as I thought, how can the wife of a pastor not be religious? At least she loved the Lord. She was also a preacher of \u2018Forgiveness will make you lol\u2019. This caption has never left me till date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had a small talk with my big sister on forgiveness. She taught me that when I relieve past event of how people have hurt me, I should thank God the experiences have made me a better person and how strong I have stood all through those trying times.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, my big sister made a lot of sense that day. Still, in reality, this forgiveness philosophy became a herculean task for me to follow as an adult. I use to be a pro at avoiding people who wronged me by deleting their contacts or even blocking them&nbsp;<em>sef<\/em>. Yes, I thought these actions of mine was me forgiving them, by making them not nauseate me any further as anything that gave me peace, worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My big sister then told me about an acquaintance of hers. She said the lady practically never remember wrongs done to her, and how she even gained more friends in a&nbsp;<em>foe-situationship<\/em>. To my mind, it was preposterous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She shared with me Isaiah 49:3-4 (NIV) saying &#8216;You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendour. But, I said I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the Lord&#8217;s hand, and my reward is with my God&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t get over the word splendour in verse 3. I couldn&#8217;t get over the fact that I shared in God&#8217;s brilliance, in his magnificent grandeur. Not only did I read the NIV version, but I must also have gone through at least 10 other versions of the Bible; it was just bursting my brain. Let me share a few here;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8216;You are my servant, Israel; you will bring me glory (NLT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israel, you are my servant; and because of you I will be highly honoured (CEV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will show my glory (AMP)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You are my dear servant, Israel, through whom I&#8217;ll shine (MSG)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israel, you are my servant; because of you, people will praise me (GNBDK)&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, it is through I, Ol\u00fawat\u00f3y\u1ecd\u0300s\u00ed that God will shine, it is through I, Ol\u00fawat\u00f3y\u1ecd\u0300s\u00ed that God will be highly honoured, it is because of I, Ol\u00fawat\u00f3y\u1ecd\u0300s\u00ed that people will praise God. Immediately, I desired to do better. That day I forgave everyone. Like, I honestly did.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if you read this and have the inkling that I haven&#8217;t forgiven you of the wrong you committed against my person, this is my open letter to you, that you have been forgiven. It was that day I truly appreciated Prof M words that forgiveness will make you lol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few days into my journey of forgiveness, a mutual friend informed me of how one of my friends,&nbsp;<em>Baby geh<\/em>&nbsp;swindled me and brags about it openly. This girl had taken my money and lied that she was a victim of some sort of fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;She not only did that to me, but she also overheard how they weren&#8217;t saying good things about me either. A lot of shit happens at the beautician studio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine your close friend do such ill and bags her bragging right on her actions and still give you all sorts of stupid names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, I was boiling mad and threatened to use every known channel to deal with her till I was exhausted. I begged for sleep, cried for sleep, till I finally prayed for sleep. A prayer God did not answer but instead directed my heart from the 1000ways to make&nbsp;<em>Baby geh<\/em>&nbsp;and her descendants suffer while her ancestors watched.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I stood up from the struggle to sleep, and Prof. M words struck me and my conscience became very loud in my ears that T\u00f3y\u1ecd\u0300, you are not going to do any of those things you are thinking. No, you&#8217;re going to do what you preach as someone who loves God. I hated myself and tried to resist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I read the devotional that even made my conscience leave my ear and sat in my heart. It gave many examples that I too, I am not infallible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Abraham, the father of faith, lied; Elijah, one of the Bible&#8217;s greatest prophets, was suicidal. I shouldn&#8217;t forget that Moses also murdered someone.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Samson also broke his covenant with God, while Rahab was a prostitute. The Samaritan woman was divorced and still sleeping around. Noah got drunk.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jacob lied, over and over. Paul killed Christians. And the different flavours of dysfunctional people that God chose. I quickly realised that we all struggle. We are all merely human.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Better ideas of how to forgive her engulfed my soul. So, I drew a plan for my sake and to be just like my Big sister acquaintance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I incessantly gave her presents, ordered her breakfast. For days, I appreciated her for being such an awesome friend all through the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Baby geh<\/em>&nbsp;first taught I was having nightmares of her. I will laugh like a madwoman.&nbsp;<em>I, T\u00f3y\u1ecd\u0300, I don&#8217;t use to dream o.&nbsp;<\/em>My mind just kept thinking about you&nbsp;<em>ore miiiii<\/em>! I will end the call like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then she thought I dreamt she was going to die, she asked me to pray for her.&nbsp;<em>That day ehn,<\/em>&nbsp;I did a prayer session, where I did not forget to rub Isaiah 49:4 that what is due to us is in the Lord&#8217;s hand. Our reward is with God, who sees our heart and will not hold back our blessings because we have never wronged another human being.&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>Baby geh&#8217;s<\/em>&nbsp;Amen wasn&#8217;t consistent with my &#8216;In Jesus Name&#8217;. On this occasion, I swear, I didn&#8217;t laugh too much, I mean, I was also praying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, she started sending people to beg me, even the friend from the studio that reported her to me. What are you begging me for&nbsp;<em>gangan<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>bayi<\/em>? (Mind you, don&#8217;t ever join the bandwagon of pity-party people who will be pleading for others without knowing what they are begging for\u2013 these set of people still shock me).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>People of God, even though I have been working on our situationship Baby geh aff now block me o. What I do<\/em>?<em>&nbsp;Kini motu shey bayi?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I remember most about the situation is that as soon as I started taking action to do something good for her, it just got so funny to me. I was laughing out loud in my house, in the office, on the road, all by myself. I felt joy.&nbsp;<em>Pure bliss!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we can look at people who&#8217;ve hurt us with compassion, there&#8217;s a party that goes on inside of us. I woke up this morning and saw alert,&nbsp;<em>gba gaun<\/em>! I can&#8217;t stop laughing at the mighty God I serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So who can you forgive and do something nice for today? Forgiveness will make you lol in such a way and manner that you can never explain it. Practice forgiveness!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sincerly,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1004\" style=\"width:262px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image.png 400w, https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/image-300x150.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For my previous post, see <a href=\"http:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/20\/toyo-the-elevator-princess\/\">http:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/20\/toyo-the-elevator-princess\/<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forgiveness will make you lol. I remember when I was in the university, our Constitutional Law professor had this written on her door &#8216;I am not religious, but I love the Lord&#8217;. This caption was ridiculous to me at the time, as I thought, how can the wife of a pastor not be religious? At&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-journey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005,"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oluabikoye.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}