Thursday, July 31, 2008

Forgiveness

Ok, in one of my posts a long time ago I mentioned someone named "cami" ( not her real name) that I was working with cleaning houses. Well, we had an awful argument one day because I couldn't go to work because I was sick. I was having female health problems. She basically did not believe me and accused me of lying and just not wanting to work. She gossiped about me at the bank in town and the things she said got back to my mother in law(small southern community-you get the picture). My MIL was not happy . She ,to this day ,will not tell me exactly what was said. I was so upset that "cami" would do that to me because I considered us to be good friends. Well, that was shortly after Christmas and I haven't spoken to her since. I was so hurt and had decided that I would never speak to her again and if she ever tried to speak to me I would walk away. That is how bad it hurt me. We are in the same ward so it has been awkward.Until today. We both happened to be at walmart at the same time. She came up to me and for some reason all I could feel was sorrow about the fact that I had cut all ties with her. I do love her. All I could do was think about how I have missed her. She started to apologize about how she left things and something came over me. I stopped her and told her that its ok, and that what happened doesn't matter now. We hugged and talked like nothing had happened.
Holding grudges will only hurt the person holding the grudge. All this time I was so focused on what she had done to me and feeling hurt. I think I forgave her long ago but was too proud to admit it.
Forgiving feels so much better than holding onto hurt feelings. It doesn't matter who was in the wrong. The first and great commandment is Love one another.
Let it go, your heart will be so much lighter.

4 comments:

April said...

Great post. LOL that you changed the names to protect the innocent. :)

Anonymous said...

I try to forgive and forget, but it's hard sometimes...

Anonymous said...

It's true - I'm sure that not forgiving hurts the person who can't forgive far worse than the person who originally caused the problem.

The Broken Man

http://theblogofabrokenman.blogspot.com/

AlaneM said...

I so agree with you on this. We are called to forgive & often we get stuck in the mind-set that forgiving someone lets them off the hook or something. No it does not let them off the hook, but our place is not to judge, that's God's job & we need to let him do it. By holding on to a hurt we are only holding outselves hostage - we can only find freedom from that bondage if we can give the issue to God & forgive the hurt - the we will be free indeed!