Forgiveness

So in my devotions this morning it asked me to pray about who I might be harboring anger against in my heart, and usually I don't really think I do that. My anger is generally like a match: it flares up and then it's out. But then God brought to my mind like a bolt of lightning my uncle's extended family. In church with my in-laws on Sunday we witnessed a woman making of profession of faith, and afterward the church elders/deacons were asked to come forward and lay hands on her for prayer. And who should come strolling up but this man. This man whose family is in absolute turmoil, this man whose son is wrapped up in so much denial about his own pain and the cause of it that the the only way he knows how to deal with it is to turn it onto everyone else around him like a contagious disease. Seeing the results of his bitterness and anger in my aunt and their girls, and knowing the dysfunction that lies underneath this guy and his family's perfect facade...I was sick to my stomach to think that he thought he had the right to stand in front of church and offer support and encouragement and PRAYER for one just beginning her own spiritual journey. I wanted to jump out of my seat and yell, "Don't touch her! You'll pass on your spiritual cancer!" And this morning God said, "Just who do you think you are?" I have no right to judge their spiritual state of mind. True, the state of their family, by all appearances, in no way speaks of people striving to walk in Jesus's steps. But what hidden corners of my own life must others look at and then scoff at my own claims to Christianity? The truth is we're alllll imperfect. The Bible doesn't say, "And those who are really screwed up have fallen short of the glory of God"....it's ALL. And so I need to let go what I think I know of this family and their sins, and focus on the plank in my own eye. It is not for me to judge but the Lord. God, forgive me and let me be desperately seeking ways in which I can also forgive.