THURSDAY - Devotional

Luke 17:3-4

(Answer the question/s below in your app notes)

• Does forgiveness get easier or harder the more you do it? Why?

Hadley smacked the sound out of her alarm clock. 5:00 AM, the clock urgently read. She groaned and rolled out of bed onto the carpet. Her eyes refusing to open at full capacity, she fumbled her way into her closet and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie.

The gym was cold in the morning—always a shock at first, but paid off once the team was sweating. Hadley recognized her friends and waved to them. She mustered all the discipline she had in her and started running laps. After laps, she knew she had burpees and push-ups to look forward to, her coach’s eagle eye at the south side of the gym surveying his team. Maybe she’d made a mistake trying out, Hadley thought as she jogged. Being a volleyball player required a lot. But it was what she’d wanted ever since she was a kid. “It’ll get easier,” Mia, the senior and team captain, whispered as she ran up beside Hadley. “Trust me,” she said, with a helpful smile.

By her senior year, Hadley thought back on Mia’s wisdom with a chuckle. Had it gotten easier? Yes… and, yet sometimes, it was just as hard as it was that first day of her freshman year. But Hadley had created a habit, a rhythm of discipline, and the consistency of that rhythm had made all the difference.

Forgiveness may or may not get easier for you the more you do it. It will always be a challenge, but it will become more familiar once you commit to practicing it every day. So make a commitment today of living in a rhythm of forgiveness.