Harold Keller / L’Observateur / May 27, 2000

Thursday morning, I attended a weekly men’s Bible sharing meeting. Themeeting, held at 5:30 a.m., in my opinion is a great way to start a day.Believe it or not, we had 19 men at the meeting that early in the morning.

Each week, different volunteers moderate the meeting and pick the subject to be discussed.

This week, the subject was anger, of which we all knew a great deal, but the focus was how to control anger. Not many people do a good job ofcontrolling their anger.

As the meeting progressed, the subject turned from anger to resentment (which follows uncontrolled anger), and then followed the subject of forgiveness, which is necessary for one to have peace and a relationship with God.

One of the men, who was divorced, shared how he had a hard time forgiving himself for almost destroying a family. His hurt was evident, and hisregrets were many. He said that since then, he came to know the Lord andnow sees things differently.

Another divorced man shared his feelings of guilt, until he had an experience with Jesus Christ. At that time, the blinders were removedfrom his eyes and he realized all the past mistakes in his life. He thenrepented, which is necessary for God’s forgiveness. When God forgives,then who are we not to forgive ourselves? Does God approve of divorce? Definitely not! Divorce affects all people involved, especially the children.

As the meeting continued, my heart went out to the hurting men.

On my drive home, I thanked God that those men and myself had a meeting in which we were able to share our problems and hurts. I was reminded ofhow grateful I was that Jeanne and I had celebrated 42 years of marriage on Wednesday.

Am I bragging about this milestone? No way. But for a praying wife andthe grace of God, our marriage could have ended in a divorce.

HAROLD KELLER writes this column as part of his affiliation with the Get High on Life religious motivational group.

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