If I were to define forgiveness with my heart instead of a dictionary I'd say forgiveness is a process of reconciling something broken with your view of the brokenness. Sometimes we need to forgive ourselves so we can change and adapt and grow more healthy as an individual. Sometimes we offer forgiveness to someone else who has wronged us. That person can accept it and change or not, but in that case the forgiveness is more for the forgiver than the forgivee (sp?).
Offering forgiveness is a process that usually involves, seeing something broken, dealing with the emotions of that brokenness, understanding how it happened to grow beyond and then justly reconciling that. A lot of people don't get past step 2 and want to jump to justice which is bitter and vengeful as Brian said. Just because you're not mad/upset about something, doesn't mean you understand it. You must understand it to grow from it. Someone wronging you makes you the victim. It doesn't mean you had zero part in an issue, but being the victim means there is a social and personal need for justice. No forgiveness should excuse accountability and responsibility for making someone a victim. All that's just IMO, don't know how much more I have to add on the subject. Sounds like a lot of peple have had much harder lives than mine and I salute each of you for having the courage to share yourselves and appreciate your candor.
Offering forgiveness is a process that usually involves, seeing something broken, dealing with the emotions of that brokenness, understanding how it happened to grow beyond and then justly reconciling that. A lot of people don't get past step 2 and want to jump to justice which is bitter and vengeful as Brian said. Just because you're not mad/upset about something, doesn't mean you understand it. You must understand it to grow from it. Someone wronging you makes you the victim. It doesn't mean you had zero part in an issue, but being the victim means there is a social and personal need for justice. No forgiveness should excuse accountability and responsibility for making someone a victim. All that's just IMO, don't know how much more I have to add on the subject. Sounds like a lot of peple have had much harder lives than mine and I salute each of you for having the courage to share yourselves and appreciate your candor.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
