Forgiveness

Forgiveness is hard. It takes a conscious decision and lots of work, but it is possible. Holding a grudge, on the other hand, is easy. In fact, it gets easier the longer you hold a grudge. Holding a grudge and being unwilling to move on does some major damage to your self. I fooled myself for lots of years thinking that my holding a grudge is hurting the person (or persons) who hurt me. But, the reality is, I was only hurting myself. In fact, it permeated so much of my life that I was becoming a bitter and negative person. It started to eat away at me like cancer. In the not too recent past, God told me (and my wife reiterated) that I needed to deal with forgiveness in my life. So, I bought a book on forgiveness and read it. I read some bible verses that deal with forgiveness. They both helped get me on the right track. But, the thing that helped me the most was just deciding to forgive. So, I finally let go of several hurts that I was carrying around like a necklace of heavy duty chains and decided to forgive. This sounds cliche, but it was like someone lifted a weight off of my shoulders. It was an amazing feeling to leave that hurt behind me. Almost immediately, the bitterness passed and the negativity started to disappear. Now, forgiveness has nothing to do with the wrong-doer acknowledging that they hurt you or apologizing. You won't always get that. But, you are required to forgive anyway. If the wrong-doer does apologize...then you have absolutely no excuse for holding onto the pain and bitterness. The only person you are hurting is yourself. Believe me, I know! It blows me away just how many people hold on to pain, bitterness, and continue to hold a grudge for years and years. It's not doing anyone any good. There is a reason that God asks his children to forgive...and it's not just because it's the nice or peaceful thing to do. God knows that it is bad for your health and your outlook on life if you fail to forgive. Like so many things that God directs us to do, it's for our ultimate good. So, if you need to forgive someone, do yourself a favor and get on with it. It's really better for you in the long run.