She finds additional strength in remembering Jesus’ words on the cross when He pled with God to forgive those crucifying Him because they didn’t know what they were doing.
“I think when I was able to say that I forgive the attackers, they don’t know really to a bigger degree what they’re doing — yes, they know that they were shooting a gun — but I was able to forgive them because it wasn’t a personal thing against me,” she said. “It’s not like they knew who I was, so I was extremely hurt and torn and shocked and sad and mortified, all those emotions. It wasn’t that none of that was there, but they don’t know they did this against Anita Smith.”
She continues to reap a harvest from her public forgiveness, Anita said.
“Fortunately I have heard of a few Libyans who have heard what happened and have become a Christian, maybe two just today and maybe one or two previously,” she said. “I don’t know them personally, but maybe a story from this person who was really inspired by what he saw on the media, but sometimes I’m like is it really going to make a difference? And I know it is, even when I’m not around.
“But it’s just struggling that, the gratification of having my husband here versus not, for the sake of the Gospel,” she said, “(and not knowing) the fruit of that.”
Anita is now part of a blended family, having remarried about 18 months ago, and lives in Michigan with her new husband Richard, her 11-year-old son Hosea and Richard’s 10-year-old daughter Natalie. She fellowshipped with Austin Stone church until relocating to Michigan in 2018 to live near her mother and sister.
“It’s a different kind of beauty,” she says of her new life, alluding to Isaiah 61:3. “I’m blessed with … a great guy. It’s not that I would change things, it’s just still different. It’s a different life stage. … We’re still adjusting.”
This article originally appeared here.
