Kate Grosmaire and her family went through an incredible ordeal and has written a book about this journey. Forgiving My Daughter's Killer is a wonderfully written memoir about this journey. The Grosmaire family lost a daughter and sister at the hands of someone they had grown to love. Kate writes in a way easy to read and easy to feel the pain that they went through. The amazing thing is the love and forgiveness that they extended along the way. I can't even imagine the heart wrenching pain and constant battle of feelings that they fought through and, yet, they always came back to forgiveness. This story is a little different from a random murder in the fact that the killer was her boyfriend whom they had come to see as part of their family. This makes this an even harder task to take on; forgiving someone you trusted to keep another loved one safe.
This story is beautiful picture of God's love and forgiveness for mankind and how mankind can exhibit an small part of this.
On a personal note: God is part of this story and yet, as a believer, I had to take into consideration the world-view or spiritual direction of this family. Their Catholic beliefs differ greatly from my own in understanding the Bible. Salvation is by faith alone through grace; without works or anything added to it. Christ is the One who gives the ability to forgive because we realize how much we have been forgiven our own sins. Our faith does not "get us through", rather, the Lord and our trust in Him is our anchor in storms such as these. I do not believe we confess to a priest for forgiveness; it is through Christ alone. The courage and focus of the forgiveness in this story was for the human sake not for the glory of God. I believe the reason we forgive first in obedience to Christ, and then, there are wonderful results and out workings of our choices. I acknowledge that this family has gone through so much and to share this story was extremely difficult, I am sure. But I was saddened to see just where their faith lies. That was a huge part of this story.
Note: I was given a free copy of this book as part of the booklookbloggers network.
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