My heart goes out to the Derksen family as they endure the trial of the man accused of snatching their 13-year old daughter and sister Candace off a Winnipeg street in 1984, tying her up and leaving her to freeze to death. I just finished reading Wilma's (her mom) book "Have You Seen Candace?", written in 1991. Though I don't believe that God desires horrible and tragic things in our lives, I do believe that He can use them for His good. God's plans must be huge for the Derksen family, having to wait for so many years, that justice may or may not be served now. The Derksen family continues to talk about forgiveness and it's so hard for most people to understand, that is, until you've experienced forgiveness yourself.
Unforgiveness held me captive for so many years. I heard sermons about it but I thought that my abuser should suffer - he doesn't deserve forgiveness for what he's done to me. And I can't really tell you what changed, but I finally realized that I was the prisoner by choosing not to forgive. My part was to let go and God's part is to deal with the rest (because it's not like I can really change anything else about the situation anyway). It's easy to try to blame others, but that doesn't help either. Deciding to forgive does not take away the pain and it doesn't erase what has happened, but I can tell you that there is freedom.
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