Learning To Forgive

Forgiveness is one of the more misunderstood faculties available in the human mind. Most of us are not very good at it, and we think it takes a long time and a herculean effort to achieve. That is not necessarily true.

I read a narrative this morning about a man whose mother initiated the murder of her husband, his father, and the years of anger and hatred that existed between them. Finally their relationship is reestablished.

They don’t want to dwell on the past. She says it can’t be changed. He adds that you can’t absolve someone and then keep rehashing the things they have done to hurt you. For Stephen, now 40 years old, it took much of his adult life to get to this point.
The decision to forgive, Stephen says, “opened a life for me that I would have never had.” (Associated Press)

Forgiveness is a choice. God chose to forgive us – and we choose to forgive others, or not. Forgetting (also a choice), stated above as not “rehashing the things they have done to hurt you,” is a mandatory component of forgiveness.

God chooses to “remember our sins no more,” and gives us the capacity to practice that discipline as well. Don’t waste time in making the decision to forgive and forget. It will take discipline on your part – but the peace that results is worth the effort. Hatred and bitterness destroy – forgiveness and forgetfulness bring a brightness of hope to life that changes everything.