When someone offends you do you forgive them?
What if they keep offending you, saying ugly and negative things about you?
What if they have betrayed you?
If they have lied to you, do you trust them ever again?
It depends on how you view forgiveness.
If you view it as a gift to them you may want to hold on to it. They really don’t deserve a gift.
If you view forgiveness instead, as a gift to yourself, you may be more apt to give it freely.
Think about it. When someone is nasty and you keep that in your heart how do you feel? Nasty.
When someone is rude and you are rude back doesn’t that make you what you weren’t to begin with, rude?
I read a book last week that gave a very interesting interpretation to forgiveness.
The book was Estranged by Jessica Berger Gross.
It was about a life of a child who had been physically abused by her father.
In this book the main character sought the counsel of a female rabbi to seek the meaning of forgiveness.
The rabbi’s response was as follows:
“The Hebrew word teshuvah usually gets translated as ‘forgiveness,’ but the true meaning is a ‘return to your finest self.'”
“Forgiveness,” she continued, “is a process we go through with someone else. It’s not instantaneous. It can take years to say I’m sorry, and years to forgive. And sometimes it doesn’t happen.”
Forgiveness is returning to your finer self – before the betrayal, lies, abuse and negativity harmed you.
The ones that continually do harm to others will remain just that – harmful and nasty.
If we hold on to our bitterness we will soon become like them.
So for this Valentine’s day do me a favor and give yourself a gift of real love.
Give yourself the gift of forgiveness and return to your finest self because we all know you are the finest. 🙂
reprinted on 2/7/2014 on Harsh Reality
Send Your First Email Newsletter Today – AWeber Communications