To Forgive or Not to Forgive?

When we talk about forgiving people, more often than not, most people think that if they forgive someone, it means they are "getting away" with the behavior, when it is in fact not true. Forgiving them simply means you acknowledge the behavior/act that offended or hurt you, hold them accountable as much as you can, you process through how you were violated or hurt, and you let go of the hurt and pain they caused you, understanding that you can't change the past. It is also important to know and understand that just because someone hurt you doesn’t mean you deserved it or it’s your fault, we are individually responsible for our own behaviors and actions.

It is very important to think through why you think you are not forgiving the person/persons, and work on that. I will say this though forgiving them does not mean you allow them back into your life (sometimes they never leave though), but that just means you set up boundaries in your interactions/relationship with them. For instance, if you get burned by fire, you heal, but you have a scar. The scar reminds you there was an incident, it no longer hurts, but it happened. You still use fire again, but you are careful how you use fire, so it doesn't burn you again.

You forgive so you can be free….don’t let anyone live rent free in your head/heart/emotions….btw, forgiveness is also a command from up above, you want to be forgiven, so, you too extend the same grace to others.…after all, we all hurt someone at some point.