~ Forgiveness ~
Sweet is forgiveness
When given from the heart
From here true freedom
Does at once start
Bitterness and resentment
Only injure and harm
Un-forgiveness keeps us
From
God’s comforting arm
Yet to forgive another
Is to release ponderous chains
It is to leave a prison
Where cold darkness remains
For as the heart forgives
The soul finds warming light
Sweet Son-shine embraces
As one leaves shadows of night
My sister and brother
Dear Christian, dear friend
Let our forgiveness have no limit
Let our mercy have no end
Greatly we have been forgiven
By our glorious Father
on high
No sin against us can match
Our sins for which Christ did die
In response to this divine love
In response to this mercy sweet
How can we not but offer to others
Forgiveness pure, full and complete?
Let us then forgive freely
All who may hurt and offend
Let us love generously all:
Neighbor, stranger and friend
For then we will
know God
Ever more intimately and true
Then we shall experience love
In ways
we once never knew
For the heart of our Father
Is mercy, forgiveness and love
Let us then be beautifully perfect
As is our Heavenly Father above
Yes, so sweet is forgiveness
When given from the heart
Sweet like the love of Jesus
From Whom I pray I never part
Forgiveness – Some Ways To Budge A Grudge
Start by trying to understand what forgiveness is NOT. There are many misconceptions about forgiveness. Clarify
it in your mind that forgiveness is not condoning: By forgiving the people who hurt you, you are not saying what was done to you was acceptable or unimportant. It was bad it did hurt you it has made a difference in your life.
By absolving them we do not let them off the hook they are not absolved of all responsibility for their actions. They are still responsible for what they did and must make their own peace with the past.
Forgiveness is not Self-sacrifice: you are not swallowing your true feelings and playing the martyr; by saying it is all right when it is not. We can make the decisions to forgive, but healing from it
will take time, and no matter how sincerely we want to let go of the past and move on with our life, we have to wait until the pain inflicted will gradually work itself out of our consciousness.
Move
on to understanding what forgiveness IS. Every definition of forgiveness is about the concepts of letting go of resentments, releasing thoughts of revenge, removing thoughts and feelings which bind you to the person who hurt you. When you progress to that
stage, it is a well earned gift you give to yourself. Now the past stops dictating how you live and you realize that what once happened to you does not have to determine what will happen to you in the future.
Make
forgiveness a daily habit, practicing forgiveness on the daily small irritations of life. The simple decision not to be angered and frustrated by the behaviour of others toward you, is a good practice, and helps when larger hurts and pains come your way.
Awareness of our own faults and failings make us more sympathetic to other people. There but for the grace of God go I. And it is this growing awareness of our own fragility that makes us able to be more feeling towards
others who stray.
Without mercy and forgiveness we would be left only with cold and unfeeling justice. We would never have any room for manoeuvre because we live in a society that would create revenge and
resentment. Justice might be functional but mercy and forgiveness are humanising.
Forgiveness is at the heart of Jesus’s message. When we refuse to forgive, it means that we are not prepared to accept
our own fallibility, for if we knew what God has forgiven us in our lives we would be unable to withhold forgiveness from others. To forgive is to begin the journey toward wholeness and healing. When we forgive someone else we are not being noble or
magnanimous. Forgiveness is a never-ending gift that God had given us and we are simply handing on the gift. Whenever we need it again, it will be there.