Amber Holmberg
Amber Holmberg's Story
Forgivness
"Forgive as the Lord forgave you." - It's not always that easy, but here is what I'm learning about forgiveness.
Have you ever been angry or let every little annoyance bother you? I know for me, when things don't go my way, I get angry and frustrated. Growing up, my family focused on God and we regularly talked about spiritual things. I remember when I was about three years old knowing and understanding what it meant to know God personally and have a relationship with Him. I came to know through my parents and our church, that God, who is perfect, loves me for me. He sent His son, Jesus, to be tortured and die on a cross to take all the punishment for MY mistakes. It was at this time that I put all my trust in God and decided to love Him with all my heart. I knew that He would live with me daily and I began a relationship with Him.
After this decision, I continued to grow closer to God and develop a more intimate relationship with Him. I learned of His plan for my life and I trusted Him with everything. At the end of my seventh grade year, however, my parents moved our family from Wisconsin to Florida. Though this was not the first time we had moved or I had started a new school, there was something different about this move. I was so mad at my parents; this incident was like "the straw that broke the camel's back". I felt like I was being ripped away from everything I knew and I could never forgive my parents. I stayed angry with them for such a long time.
The summer before my freshman year of high school I went to a Christian summer camp where the theme of the week was Forgiveness. This was something I was not too interested in hearing about, but I began to understand and experience God’s forgiveness for me that week. I learned that God does not care how I’ve messed up or who or why I am angry, past or present, He will forgive me as long as I ask. I also learned that He wants us to forgive and love one another. I realized at this camp that I needed to forgive my parents and God really began working in my heart and in my life to do that.
I took this life lesson with me throughout high school but as I got busier with clubs and sports and focusing on academics, God began to take a back burner role in my life. As I went to college, it only got worse. There were so many more distractions and freedoms that I hadn’t experienced before and I quickly fell into the party scene. Because I was not focusing on God in my life, I searched for happiness and value in being accepted by my peers through drinking. When I found myself even more lonely than happy, I got angry again.
Towards the end of my first semester, one of my sorority sisters began inviting me to Campus Crusade, a Christian organization at UF, although every time, I found an excuse to say no. Finally in February that year, she convinced me to go on a women’s retreat with her. The theme of that week was “true value” and finding self-worth in Jesus Christ alone. This really made a lot of sense to me and continued to impact my life as I talked more with my sorority sister. I knew that the way I had been living my life was not pleasing to God, but that He loved me still and desired for me to put my trust in Him. I brought Him from the back burner to the front of my life. Though I can still get angry, I have learned that I can give all my frustrations to God and He will take care of me. He gives me peace, joy and value in my life.