Forgiveness means Freedom

I've been on both sides.

I've been hurt but I have also been the culprit for someone else's pain.

There's no way in the world for me to count the number of times I have had to say "I'm sorry".  Usually (but not always) it's because my mouth got ahead of my brain and I said something spiteful, 

There have of course been things I have done that I was sorry for.  However, one thing my mother taught me is that I don't have to hang out all my dirty wash so if you think I'm about to give you some expose of my life...you might as well stop reading.

I have also been hurt, felt betrayed, heard words that were biting and truth be told made me want to retaliate.  

There have been circumstances where I ended up on the losing end of what should have been a winning situation  Once I lost a job because someone else wanted the position. Once I was told I had betrayed someone and that was  not only not true, it was mean and hurtful that anyone would have thought I was mean and hurtful.

Like the rest of you, I could go on and on.

However, I heard a statement recently that touched my heart.

I was watching a Hallmark movie.  I had missed the first hour, but apparently a young man had lost his parents in some sort of brutal way.  He was bitter and had chosen many wrong paths.  He was the sole heir to a fortune.  But the benefactor, his grandmother who loved him dearly, had recognized his worth and set up a plan to help him grow up before he could have the funds.

One of his mentors in the process spent time with him encouraging him to put the past behind him.  To "forgive" the persons who took his parents lives and to see if he could find freedom in the forgiving.

I had never thought of that before.  And yet it makes sense.  If we hang on to the hurt, it can do nothing be harm us...in our relationship with others and especially in our relationship with God

And why should we give the other person the satisfaction....Ooopsss -that doesn't sound like letting it go, does it?