Forgive and Forget?

Forgive and forget rolls off the tonngue so easily, but how accurate is it really? Must you forget in order to forgive, and can you forget without forgiving?
I think it's quite possible to forget without forgiving. Years later something could remind you of an incident, and your mind would awaken to find you still hold a grudge. Forgetting is more a slip of the mind than any actaul progress in the emotional department.
I'm sure it's possible to forgive without forgetting but things probably dissapear from memory when there is no longer a reason to remember. I'm not sure I resolved this in my mind by even writing this post.
My conclusion is that you have to forgive to really forget, but might not forget upon forgiving.

For Josh and Anna

My friend Josh and his girlfriend Anna had to endure something this last Thursday that nobody should go through. Unfortunately it did happen to them and I feel quite helpless here not even able to say how sorry I am, so this poem is dedicated to them. Josh and Anna, this is for you, I will keep you in my prayers.

For Josh and Anna
~
I usually keep my heart locked up
I’m usually cold as stone.
But your pain is bleeding over
It cuts me to the bone.
~But I can’t cry your tears for you
~And I couldn’t stop this blight.
I wish that I could hug you
Tell you its all okay.
But after what you’ve been through
There’s nothing I could say.
~But I can’t cry your tears for you
~And I can’t fight this fight.
Where does this pain end?
Just how can this be?
Why can’t I heal you?
What if it happened to me?
~But I can only cry my tears for you
~And wait here in His light.

Love,

Korin

Cain's wife

Where did Cain get his wife?

~

This question was posed at my Bible Study last night. I had never really thought about it before, but if Cain didn't marry his sister, then where did his wife come from? If you know the story of Cain you can skip to the next paragraph, or you can stay the course for a quick recap. After Cain murdered his brother Abel he was marked by God. God decreed that no man could harm Cain and that he was banished to wander far from his homeland. We don't know how long he wandered, but we do know that somewhere he obtained a wife.

Being banished makes it very unlikely that Cain married one of his many sisters. So my Bible Study group proposed and dissected a few theories to explain the presence of other humans. I will present them below by number.

1. Adam and Eve (Cain's parents) are recorded as being the first man and woman, all the preceeding creatures were animals. This created an interesting and controversial idea that maybe they were the first man and woman to have souls or a relationship with God. So many things in the Bible are metaphor that Adam and Eve could be the first man and woman just by having souls, not that they were the first Homo Sapiens.

2. God may have continued creating after he finished with Adam and Eve. God did rest on the 7th day but he could have resumed some minor creating after his nap. Other races of people may have been created outside of the Garden of Eden. After all, people are a very diverse group, we come in all colors, sizes, and tongues.

3. Adam and Eve lived to be quite old, some of thier children probably already had children and grandchildren of their own by the time Cain found his wife. These families could have wandered away from thier original home near Eden to form other groups of people from which Cain may have chosen a wife.

So what do you think? Do you have any idea where Cain may have found a wife? Leave me a comment, even if it's really long, telling me what you think of thiese ideas or your own theory.

Love,

~Korin