Mending Relationships

When Julie, the social worker from Hospice, visited my mom last week, she left a paper titled "Five Things".

It is one of the few papers she has kept, not given to me to file away in the Hospice File.

I went looking this morning on the Internet to learn more about The Five Things.  They come from a book by Dr. Ira Byock, Dying Well:  Peace and Possibilities at the End of Life and are described more fully in another book, The Four Things that Matter Most.  They are:

I Forgive You

Forgive Me

Thank You

I Love You

Good-bye 

I have put aside all hurt or resentment I might have had against you.  For all those hurts, large or small, I forgive you.

For those things I have done in my life which have hurt or harmed you, please forgive me.

Thank you for all the moments of light and friendship you have brought into my life.  Thank you for being my friend.  Thank you for being you.

I love you. Unconditionally.

Good-bye.

They fit beautifully into the theme of the study currently ongoing in our church based on Dr. Timothy Keller's book The Prodigal God.  Keller talks about unconditional love, families vs. community, and the restorative power of forgiveness, building his message from the (mis-named, he says) Parable of the Prodigal Son.  It, too, is worth exploration.

Give thanks for those who love  unconditionally.  Especially those who love you unconditionally.  

Don't forget to pray.