Dear God,

I pray for guidance.

I agreed to forgive the betrayal in my last relationship and let him back in as a friend. However, I am struggling. Sometimes, when I see a pretty girl or someone who I believe to be his ‘type’, I go back to feeling emotional pain and it hurts me to my core.

I know that this person is a dear friend and I am grateful for his presence in my life but I struggle moving passed the past. Please help me?

How am I suppose to be at peace with someone who hurt me so deeply? Am I on the right track? I am a firm-believer in forgiveness and this relationship has helped me grow in so many ways that I never knew possible but I’m not sure that I am strong enough to have him in my life when I am continuously reminded of what happened to me.

I spend so much time thinking about taking the high road that sometimes I forget to be realistic. God, can we realistically continue this friendship with the acknowledgment that I don’t want to be involved in a romantic relationship with this person again. Or, is he putting on a façade around me so that I will take him back and he can do what he did to all over again? Is our connection genuine? Or, deceit?

God, please help me move forward with forgiveness and peace? I need you. I am stuck and I don’t want to toy around with another person’s loyalty, love and devotion.

Is this friendship sincere? Has he evolved? If not, please give me strength that I need to swallow the truth and protect myself accordingly?

Amen.