UNFORGIVEN (Without Amazing Grace Where Would I Be?)
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I am found, Was blind, but now I see. -John Newton
As I become older things that once mattered; doesn't matter anymore. The grudges I held against others are now obsolete. Who wants to go to their graves being pissed off with someone else? I DON'T! I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I have learned to do is to forgive myself and in forgiving myself...I have found it easier to forgive others. My favorite poet Maya Angelou wrote:
It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.
Forgiveness comes easy over time; however, being the UNFORGIVEN can be challenging. You find yourself asking if I can forgive those whom have hurt me....why can't they forgive me .? Doing this is just opening yourself up to more resentment which will result in you no longer forgiving, so do not base your apologies and willingness to forgive on being forgiven because many times others are not willing to forgive you and that's their problem. You can't undo anything you've already done, but you can face up to it. You can tell the truth. You can seek forgiveness. And then let God do the rest.
If you don't believe in God then whatever brings you peace because whatever your religious tradition may be they all carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness...the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives. Dalai Lama
No one has a right to your peace and if they refuse to free you from the burden of regret and shame then sweetie free yourself. “When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” Ponder
If they want to carry around resentment for you in their hearts and minds...then that is their perrogative. My perrogative is to dismiss them from my spirit because their resentment will not poison me any further. Now that I know better I am able to resist the temptation to judge others. Instead of seeing them as something unpleasant. I can see them as teachers of forgiveness in my life, and be my constant reminders that I can only have peace of mind when I forgive rather than judge. -Gerald Jampolsky
DO YOU HEAR ME!!! I AM FREE!!!! I am so free of your pain. I can live without your love. I CAN LIVE WITHOUT YOU!!! You can no longer control me and you dam sure cannot mode me. I AM BRAND NEW!!! Not for one second do I blame you because I once held your position; but I am now walking in the path of least resistance. I have been given gifts you cannot take, gifts that represent his name sake and they are: love, prayer, and forgiveness. I wish you nothing but peace and you will forever be in my prayers. GOD BLESS MY ENEMIES. -PFP
There is no justification without sanctification, no forgiveness without renewal of life, no real faith from which the fruits of new obedience do not grow.-Martin Luther
Your refusal of your forgiveness....keeps you in my past. My forgiveness of you.....enlarges my future. ???? Regardless, I am free at last.
This article is intended for people who find it hard to forgive and most definitely for the ones whom forgiveness is not given; but most of all for the ones whom have battles within and find it very difficult to forgive themselves. God Bless.
© 2010 PFP
