Forgiving Is Not An Option
Have you ever thought about how burdening it feels to have a guilty conscience, especially one that is easily avoidable. Unforgiveness weighs down not only the unforgiven person, but also the person not giving his or her forgiveness. Not forgiving weighs you and the person you are in conflict with down. Set others free by forgiving them and, ultimately, you will set yourself free. Just like how you make the same mistakes over and over again, allow others the same room to make the same mistakes. Besides, nobody is perfect, right?
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So often when we have to do the forgiving, we look at that person in a shameful way making them feel like they have done a terrible thing. Most of the time we ourselves have done a very similar thing and we were in their position, begging for forgiveness. Bitterness is something that society should remove as a whole. Stop being the one to judge others because no one in this world has that authority.
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Forgiving others often takes time. Because the past situations by which forgiveness is necessary infers a difficult time, the corresponding process of forgiving will take a while to heal. Through many past experiences, I have had to forgive many friends, peers, family members, and even enemies. The hurt does not go away, but we are able to find peace through forgiving the other party or sometimes ourselves.
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Although this blog is about forgiving others, I think it is essential to likely forgive yourself too. In one of my biggest struggles of my life everyone had forgiven me, I had asked for forgiveness from my family and God (although that does not apply to everyone) but I could not move forward in my life because I still felt shame towards my past. Shame is something that is terribly powerful- but you know what has no shame in doing, forgiving. Trust me, you will never once feel shameful after forgiving others or yourself.
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Remember, forgiveness does not justify the deed or the person, it does not provide God's forgiveness for their actions, because only God can do that. While nothing can undo the past, we can do something about the condition of our own present and future. Forgiving others makes a way for our own healing to begin.
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