To Inspire:

What a joy it was for me to host our firm’s 9^th Annual Men’s Bus Trip to Marion Correctional Institution (MCI) earlier this week. Since 2015 we’ve been taking a bus load of clients and friends up to MCI to spend a day with a group of incarcerated men who are in a program called Embark, an intensive year long program of spiritual and emotional renewal and discovery that helps prepare these men to return to society. Embark is offered by Kindway, a Columbus-based ministry that works with men and women in four central Ohio prisons.

Those of us who made the trip this year spent the day listening to powerful testimonies from several of the guys in the Embark program. Their stories had a tragic but common theme from their childhoods – abusive fathers or fathers not present, mothers and other family members battling addiction and poverty and no instruction or example of essential life values and skills.

One of the most powerful parts of the day was a “forgiveness ceremony.” All of us were asked to reflect for several minutes on who we needed to forgive from our hearts for wrongs and injuries inflicted upon us. We then were asked to write those names on a small piece of paper and to come forward to place those slips of paper in a large tank of water….which dissolved each slip.

For many, the first name we wrote was our own….

You might consider such an exercise for yourself. Perhaps find a quiet place and time soon to prayerfully consider who in your life you need to forgive. Forgiveness does not excuse behavior; but it does involve us releasing someone in our heart from a desire for revenge or punishment and desiring the best for them. In forgiving we emulate the God who made us and who has forgiven each of us for so much. And as we learn to forgive, we’ll discover greater peace in our own lives and the freedom to live the life we desire to live – one of joy and gratitude.

Forgiveness is such an important part of living your great life. Move forward with forgiving others…you’ll be so thankful you did.

Have a great weekend.

Written by Matt Palmer, Partner & Co-Founder