Thursday, March 01, 2012

Forgiving a murderer?

It has blown my mind away to have found such a person in today's times. A mother whose teenager son is murdered says she forgives the person who killed her son. What thinking, man! It makes me want to respect this woman so much. She is truly an inspiration. Read some of the stuff she says and believes in below.

And to think, sometimes as a person we even have a hard time forgiving people who hurt us. It's a pity!

The parents of Ohio school shooting victim Demetrius Hewlin said today they forgive suspected gunman T.J. Lane for shooting their son, noting sadly that Demetrius was often late for school but not late enough that day.

"I don't know what [his] final moments were like, but I can't worry about it," Demetrius' mother Phyllis Ferguson told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "You have to accept things done and move on."

When asked what she would say to the suspected shooter, Ferguson said, "I would tell him I forgive him because, a lot of times, they don't know what they're doing. That's all I'd say."
"I taught Demetrius not to live in the past, to live in today and forgiveness is divine. You have to forgive everything. God's grace is new each and every day," she said. "Until you've walked in another person's shoes, you don't know what made him come to this point."

Hewlin was one of three teens killed following a deadly shooting rampage at Chardon High School on Monday.

Ferguson said her son as a "huggy, kissy boy" who was a "computer nerd," liked to read and did not like getting up early. Hewlin was good friends with Russell King Jr., 17, and Daniel Parmertor, 16, the other two teens who died after the shooting spree. His stepfather Tim Ferguson remembered playing pee-wee football with the boys.

"He wasn't a morning person and he was late for school. But that one day he wasn't late," his mom said. "We were running a little late, but we weren't late enough. But it's okay. It's in God's hands. Let his will be done."

She said she never imagined she would have to bury her son.

"I thought he'd bury me," Ferguson said. "He'd say, 'When you get old, Ma, you're going to live with me and we going to do this.'"

The parents said they are honoring Hewlin's wishes by having his organs donated.

"He will live after his death," Phyllis Ferguson said. "For one Demetrius, there's eight people he can help."

Ferguson said it has not fully hit her that her son is gone and that she expects to hear him running through the house. But she said she knows the matter is out of her hands now.
"God knew what he was doing. It's not for my understanding, but mine to accept and remember him as he was," Ferguson said.

Source: http://gma.yahoo.com/ohio-school-shooting-victims-parents-forgive-suspected-shooter-161435847--abc-news.html

2 comments:

Justin said...

Thanks for the article! I, too, have a lot of respect for this woman, I can't imagine trying to forgive someone who murdered my child. I just finished "Forgiving the Unforgivable" by Master Charles Cannon, and writes a lot about the power of forgiveness and its effects. I really connected with it, if you're interested you should check out the website http://forgivingtheunforgivable.com/.

Thanks!
Justin

Kanan said...

Justin, hello, thanks for your comment. Forgiving is really difficult, and like any other skill requires a lot of practice, I feel. I will surely check out the website. Thanks again.