Unforgiveness.

How do you go about forgiving someone who did THAT to you? They deserve to be punished for what they did. They had no right.

People often think things like this and also act on these thoughts for the purpose of somehow punishing the person who committed an offence towards them. What usually happens though is that YOU are the one who ends up suffering more. In some instances the unforgiveness completely takes over your life and you can’t see anything but the offence. It consumes you completely.

Unforgiveness can be described like this: you getting a cup of poison and drinking it, then expecting the OTHER person to suffer the consequences. It just won’t happen.

In order to move on in life, forgiveness must be explored. Do you really want to remain bound to your past? Wouldn’t you prefer to put it behind you and look forward?

Some things that may assist you in taking the first step to forgiving are:

> It’s not a single event, but an ongoing process

> Not saying anything or biting your tongue isn’t forgiveness

> Forgiveness and trust are two separate things – just because you forgive doesn’t mean you EVER have to trust again

> Forgive and forget’ is unrealistic – you may never forget the incident, but you can choose to release it and not allow it to
> hold you prisoner.

> The ‘unforgivable act’ committed against you says more about the other person and not you – it was probably not ever about you,
> but was instead about them and their inadequacies, failings etc

A good point to consider is that forgiveness is completely about you, and absolutely nothing about the other person.