I would really appreciate everyone's prayers regarding a ongoing situation between my biological mom and myself that seems to be getting more tense lately. A number of years ago now, I was roommates with a guy for four years, and during that time, I entrusted him to handle my finances because I've never been very good at that sort of thing myself, and I thought he was a trustworthy person. Unfortunately, it turns out that he wasn't, and he ended up cheating me out of quite a bit of money. I became a Christian halfway through that time, which is a story for another time, but after being roomies with this guy for four years, I packed up all my things, moved to another city four hours to the south and began going to a Christian school there. Well, ever since then, my mom on a pretty regular basis asks me if I'm ever going to try to contact the guy to see if he's willing to give me back the money he stole from me. Or, as my mom puts it, the money he "owes me." I have repeatedly told her that I have forgiven him, and just want to move on and have her do the same, but she obviously has not. As evidence of that, I just got in the mail yesterday afternoon a packet of papers from her, outlining how much I made during the time I lived with this guy, compared with how much our bills were during that same time. She also included some handwritten notes about how she contacted him herself, and the reasons he gave for thinking he didn't owe me nearly as much as my mom had figured out. Knowing this guy as well as I do, the "reasons" he gave sound a lot more like excuses and lies cleverly told. At least when I knew him, he was very charming and very good at lying convincingly. The thing that I find interesting about the packet she sent was that, earlier that day, I had sent her an e-mail, asking her to please forgive herself, God, and the guy in question for what had happened, and just put that whole situation behind her once and for all, among other things. I have put it behind me and forgiven all those involved, because there are no such things as time machines where we can fix every little mistake we ever made. Besides, God wants us to live in the present and look forward to the future, not be stuck in regrets about the past. But, my mom is not a Christian, so maybe I shouldn't be expecting her to be able to truly forgive anyone. After all, the ability to forgive, just like anything else we do to please and glorify Him, is a gracious gift from God Himself. Anyways, please be praying this situation doesn't devolve into anything ugly, that I'm able to speak the truth in love to my mother and honor and respect her like I'm commanded to do in Scripture, that I'm able to establish and keep healthy boundaries between herself, me and my wife to protect our spiritual and psychological health, and that God uses this situation to draw both my mom and her husband, my step-dad, to a saving knowledge of Himself. Thank you in advance, and God bless!
Yours in Christ,
Benjamin
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