I received a thank you note a couple of days ago. My niece who is my namesake, Lindsay Dianne, got married June 6th. She was writing to thank us for the dinner plates we bought her as a wedding gift two and a half months ago. Now, I have never been a stickler on thank you notes--I guess because I was always horrible at writing them in a timely manner. And after all, she had already thanked us in person so what does a hand-written note add to that? But....
But I thought--good little southern girls have them in the mail before the attendees get home from the showers--and it really is a good thing, a gracious thing, the thing to do--but I am just not made that way. And yes, discipline is one of the areas of my life that I struggle with daily.
I did have to smile a little though when on the back of the thank you note envelope was the message "Retroactive 6-6-09." Even if I was an ole aunt saturated with southern etiquette through and through, I think I would have smiled also.
And I thought "how clever of her."
And I thought--retroactive--I know what retroactive means. I've read about it many times in the Bible. Isn't that what it means when it says, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." His love goes all the way back, doesn't it? No matter what we've done or how bad we have sinned.
And I thought--how loving of Him! Because He Is Love!
So think about forgiving yourself today for past failures and sins. He has--his forgiveness is retroactive.
