Forgiveness
Forgiveness is more important than most people realise. What does forgiveness mean to us as individuals? First it seems clear to me that to be forgiven we have to recognise that we can be wrong this is a first basic step to take. I needed not only to be told by the person I had wronged that I was forgiven , but also to truly feel forgiven.
|
Forgiving is important to the person who has been hurt, and also to the person who has done the hurting. |
There was a day that I hurt someone who I really cared about. I said sorry. They replied: "It's alright. It don't matter." But it did matter to me. I wanted to know that their forgiveness was more than just words. So I sat down with them and told them how I was feeling, that I was really sorry for hurting them and how I wished I hadn't done it. I told them I knew how wrong I was and how much they meant to me and how I didn't want to hurt them but I had, and I was so sorry. They replied: "Well, what you said did hurt and I couldn't understand why you had said what you had." They were obviously upset by the whole thing but then said how they loved me and had forgiven me. It was then that I could accept that they had really forgiven me and I was able to say sorry again and how much I loved them, not because they had forgiven me but because I hated hurting them. From that moment I started to realise how forgiving is important to the person who has been hurt and also to the person who has done the hurting.