Focus on the Family Magazine - February/March 2022

Faith & Inspiration
my mom’s
heritage of
forgiveness
A spiritual insight
from <strong>Focus</strong> on the
Family’s international
leadership
Adelita, Sixto’s mother
BY SIXTO PORRAS
CREDIT PHOTO COURTESY TK
OF THE PORRAS FAMILY
MY PARENTS’ UPBRING-
ING in beautiful Costa Rica was
anything but idyllic.
My mother was the daughter of one
of my grandfather’s mistresses, who
gave my mom to an aunt when she
was young. Mom experienced abuse
and violence as a child. Her childhood
was one of work, pain and abandonment.
She described her father as a
cruel man.
“When he finished his coffee, he
would throw the cup at my head,” she
said. “That was the sign that he had
finished.”
My father was one of eight children.
After their father died, my dad began
working at banana plantations and
docks as a 13-year-old to help feed the
family.
When my parents got married, they
didn’t know much about building a
family. But when my mom met God,
she learned the art of forgiveness. After
receiving forgiveness for herself, she
was then able to give it to the people
around her. Mom began to let go of
the chains of the past, and that led to
a desire to reconnect with her own
mom—not from a place of pain, but
from healing and the hope that comes
from forgiveness.
When I was 19, my mom and I went
to Nicaragua to try and find my grandmother.
“What if you find her?” I asked.
“What will you do?”
“If I have not forgiven . . . my desire for
revenge would cause me to speak words
of bitterness and pain,” she said. >>>
FEBRUARY / MARCH 2022 FOCUS ON THE FAMILY 27