Forgiveness

“To err is human. To forgive divine.” I believe every one has heard of this maxim before.

Sometimes, when we sit back and retrospect, we realized that there are many occasions when a little forgiveness on our part will have made a lot of difference. Learn to forgive now, so that in future, you will not have to blame yourself for not being more forgiving.

Forgiving is something that we struggled with after someone has wronged us, either through hurtful words or maliciousness acts. We kept thinking of the hurt, the injustice we suffered. We hold a grudge against them, and we keep thinking of a way to get back at them, or to get even with them.

This is wrong thinking. To think this way only does us more harm. I can pretty much guarantee you that the person who wronged you doesn't go around thinking about it daily, if at all. He is done with it. He did what he did – maybe intentionally, or maybe he didn’t even realized that he had done wrong. In any case, he would have moved on.

Whereas, here we are, still mopping, plotting revenge, trying to get even. Little did we know that harbouring all these harmful and negative thoughts does not hurt the person who did us wrong, it only rob us of our peace of mind.

We must learn to forgive. Forgive the people who had done us wrong, but don’t forget the lesson, or the reason why we were taken advantage of. Learn the lesson well, so that we will not be taken advantage of by the same trick, or person again.

In society, in our social circle, there will always be people who spoke out of turn – people who said something about us, or did something involving us that is unforgivable. No matter who we are, we have been hurt at one time or another. But we must stop holding grudges. Too many people wasted their time obsessed with hatred for those who had hurt them.

We must learn to let go. Whatever it was, let it go. This is so that there is closure to the hurt, and we can move on. Life is too short to be holding grudges, or keeping the hurt and anger in us. Doing so will hurt only ourselves in the end. Forgiveness is the healing of wounds caused by another. We choose to let go of a past wrong, and no longer be hurt by it.

It really doesn’t matter if the person who hurt us deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. We want closure to the hurt, the unpleasantness. We want to move on. And we can only do so, if we close the chapter.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain. - Samuel Johnson

Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself. To forgive is to set the prisoner free, and then discover the prisoner was you. - Lewis B. Smedes

Forgiveness is the fragrance a rose gives to the heel of the boot that crushes it. - Unknown

So, forgive everyone everything, including yourself, set yourself free in the process.