Forgiveness

Forgiveness has always been something that is easy for me to do.  I get into an argument with someone and they say something to hurt my feelings and in a few hours I've moved on and forgave them already.   But forgiving someone is not the same when they try to completely destroy you and ruin your life. 

 I've toyed with the thought of forgiving someone for three months but it is very hard for me because of what happened.  I thought to myself, "how can I forgive someone who physically and mentally abused me?" I asked myself this question over and over. It made it even harder to forgive because not only did he abuse me, he tried to force these negative thoughts about me on others. How do I even begin to forgive him when he caused me so much pain??  

Then I read a scripture out of the bible that said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44)) and I began to pray for him. I began to pray for him every time I prayed even if all I asked for is for God to forgive him I prayed for him.  Even though I was praying for him and asking God to forgive him, I still had not forgave him for what he had done to me. 

So I continued to read scriptures on forgiveness and found: Then Peter went up to him and said, "Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?" Jesus answered, "Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times" (Matthew 18:21-22). So I forgave. I told myself if I can forgive him for cheating on me (because people make wrong decisions sometimes) I can use that same reasoning to forgive him for the abuse. 

Forgiving someone who has done you wrong is never easy. I resented him for taking my kindness for weakness and I blamed myself for being naïve.  What kept me going is knowing that whenever not-so-good things happen, good things shortly follow. I stopped pondering over the fact that I needed to forgive him and wasn't ready and just told myself I HAVE to forgive in order to not feel pain anymore. Once I started to forgive just a little bit, things started going extremely well for me.

So here I am living in the moment and learning how to forgive and boy does it feel great! I know there is someone out there that you probably should forgive, so forgive them. Forgive them so that you can move on with your life. 

I hope this helped at least one person. :)