Off my Chest

Wow, this month has been so crazy yet full of so many fun things, and lessons learned, so here goes.  A couple of weeks ago my aunt of people made some rude comments about me and my children being sick, I suppose she made the sick comments in reference to my daughter who has two auto immune disease, and autism spectrum disorder.  Well this was painful and to be honest my mother bear instincts kicked in, fast and furious.  I was livid, none of her conditions are contagious, possibly she sould have sent me a private message and expressed her concerns, and secondly my daughter can not be vaccinated because of all the damage that it could cause her, she has been in the hospital for seizures for seizures following vaccines, so needless to say our fourth child has not been vaccinated yet because to be honest, the thought terrifies me, I am lost one child, and I am never going to risk this again, maybe I will someday if vaccines become safe, and by safe I MEAN NO RISK, NO SIDE EFFECTS!  My children are not a threat to you, in fact vaccinated children are more of a risk to my unvaccinated children, but I am not writing to post a debate on vaccines, like I always say make up your own mind and educate yourself, sadly I did too late.
So I got a phone call so that she could apologize, I accepted her apology even though it was followed up with "but you have offended me too", so I asked genuinely from my heart so I could do the right thing and apologize.  Guess what, she refused to tell me, so I am grateful that in all this I learned a valuable, some people do not know what a true apology is, I am so grateful that I have learned what true reconciliation is and how to apply it to my life.  It is hard, it is not from man, it is from Jesus, and without it there is only bitterness that chews away at you, now I am not perfect but something I am and continue to learn is in order to give forgiveness, you must accept it and if someone wants to genuinely receive forgiveness they need to give you an opportunity to ask for it.