Life’s Curveballs

Webster’s defines Forgiveness as the act of forgiving. Forgiving… willing or able to forgive… allowing room for error or weakness. Forgive… to give up resentment of or claim to requital of an insult… to grant relief from payment of a debt… to cease to feel resentment against and offender… to pardon one’s enemies… to grant forgiveness.

I’ve been reading a lot about forgiveness lately and there is much information on the Internet about it and many websites too. It’s an intriguing subject and one you can find scattered throughout the Bible…

Conditional Forgiveness

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ~ Matthew 6:14-15

Impediments to Forgiveness: The Lure Of Sin

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. ~ Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32

Vengeance Is the Lord’s

Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble, or else the Lord will see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from them. ~ Proverbs 24:17-18

These are just some of many verses about forgiveness that I found in the Bible.

There are many thoughts on forgiveness on the Internet, and I found one website named, The Positive Way that has some very good points on the subject, which seems to fit within my beliefs called, Forgiveness as a Key to the Future and here are a couple excerpts…

Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself. It is a release from the burden of anger and pain. When you choose to forgive, you choose to live in the present and the future instead of the past. It does not mean to forget but it does mean to release and go on. Forgiveness doesn’t happen on it’s own, you must choose to forgive.

Here are some key points about forgiveness from the same website:

1. Forgiveness is not forgetting.

2. The pain may not be completely gone. One can forgive and still grieve a loss or feel pain from a wound.

3. Damage and wounds can take time to repair.

4. Forgiveness does not deny responsibility for behavior. You have simply committed to not hold the other person in debt.

Someone just told me recently that I “live by the motto it’s over so don’t talk about it.” Is that really such a bad way to be? I will acknowledge that it is good to air your grievances and talk about them but I don’t carry a grudge for very long. When I have an argument or disagreement with someone, I am able to put it aside and move on rather quickly. Maybe this is a flaw that I have because usually the other person hasn’t gotten angry yet and wants to argue and I have already moved on to something else.

I guess I should make one final point about forgiveness from Forgiveness as a Key to the Future…

Forgiving doesn’t always mean resuming a relationship with whoever has hurt you. If a person won’t meet you halfway or has been abusive, it may be better to forgive simply to make your own life less stressful, but continue to keep your distance….