Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Forgiveness

Loving your neighbor is easy enough , forgiving them is another thing altogether ! What is it about forgiveness that makes it so difficult for me ? It seems that the closer the person is to me the harder it is for me to let the little injustices slide by . And I really tend to hang on to those that are not so little . Perhaps it is because these are the people that I trust the most . Because I have deemed them worthy of my confidence , I expect them to be that way for ever . I have learned over the years that simply because some one holds a position of trust and that I assume they should be trustworthy does not make it so . I have never been real big on the whole " turn the other cheek " concept , I tend to lean towards " if you slap one cheek , I'm very reluctant to give you the other one " and if by chance you should slap that one too , you might as well hang it up 'cause I doubt you'll get more than basic courtesy from me ever again . How many times should I forgive people the same offenses , before I just give up on them ? Perhaps I should pull out my trusty "post card bible" and think on it for a while . Do you have to trust your neighbor in order to love him (or her) ? Food for thought .

3 comments:

Emily said...

And of course, sometimes walking away is the most loving thing you can do--it's not loving to let someone keep beating you up over and over, perpetuating the system.

I think forgiveness involves more creativity than we have been led to believe.

One way I have worked to forgive someone that deeply hurt me is to imagine said person experiencing a whole, healthy future. That does not mean I'm going to put myself in a position where I can be hurt again. Praying for him to be whole seemed to release me from the toxicity.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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