WHO DETERMINES WHAT WE ARE?

I thought I had overcome many trials and tribulations if my life.

The pain of leaving my family behind when I immigrated to Canada, Divorce, Death of both my parents and my two sister. Death of a daughter.

Leaving a daughter and all my grandchildren behind in Canada when I immigrated to Utah.

Unfortunately that has not been the case. I have encountered hurt deeper that I have never encountered before in my life. The challenge from people that has challenged the very core of who I am as a person. The core of my very being. An honest person who care about my family and friends.

I believe I am a person of integrity who abhor lying and cheating and that of having people challenging my integrity has been the hardest, most hurtful and most humiliating experience in my life.

I have been called a liar and many other deeply hurtful things which is so totally against my personality and who I am and always been as a person.

I should have told myself: “Well they don’t know me”, but that is not always easy when somebody is so adamant about “who they “think” and “believe” and “Have Determined” you are” without really taking the time to get to know “the real you”.

BUT

I feel I have always been pretty good at forgiving but I have learned an even deeper meaning of “total forgiveness” and I am grateful that I have learned that lesson.

The total depth of “what Christ meant” when he said that we should forgive our enemies has been revealed to me more than ever before.

We should not let others determine who we are.

We should not let others "faulty" judgment of us determine what we do and how we live.

Vibeke Lindhardt

20 November 2017