MIDWEEK MESSAGE – November 20, 2024

One major theme that can be found in all spiritual paths – and psychological, emotional, and physical healing programs is…forgiveness.  

When we hold onto resentments because of what someone did or did not do to us, the only person who suffers is ourselves. The sad thing about this is that the person or thing we refuse to forgive is usually unaware of the entire situation, so only we are punished.  When we refuse to forgive, we are keeping ourselves emotionally and mentally attached to the event or person we want to be free from.  This is true whether the bitterness is based on a minor experience or a life-changing event.

I heard Scarlett Lewis talk on forgiveness at a conference I attended some years ago.  Scarlett’s son Jesse was murdered along with 20 other children and many teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Here stood a woman who had what most women would say is the worst nightmare a mother could experience.  She could have easily held onto hatred and resentment for the man who caused her (and many others) pain, one that was beyond what most people deal with in their lives.

Her understanding was that holding onto hatred was only contributing to the violence that is rampant in our world today, so she found a way to experience compassion rather than hatred.  She realized that if she was to go on living and being a mother to her other son, she had to make an affirmative decision to put the person responsible behind her and move forward for herself and her other son.

She also had to forgive herself.  Whenever we feel resentment or hatred toward someone else, there are usually feelings about ourselves that we must forgive as well.  Until we can forgive at all levels, we become stuck in the pain of the situation, and we can never truly be happy and free. 

If you do nothing else for the healing of your soul – forgive. Forgive.  FORGIVE! Forgive everyone and everything.  Remember, too, that forgiveness is not forgetting, denying, condoning, or enduring anything.  It is the releasing of any attachment to the person or the situation that we have resentment against.  

Forgiveness is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves.  Do it today!

Quote of the Week

“It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself to forgive.  Forgive everybody.”           

Maya Angelou