Forgiveness purifies your heart to keep more love
Forgiveness, amongst many of us, doesn't make for an easy quality to posses. But what is a good quality if you can't - or better yet - don't want to practice. A trait which when faced with the most difficult of interactions we hold back, brand new in our hearts, without bringing it out to feel the elements? May be most of us do forgive in our days. We forgave that 'miserable' fellow who has done us wrong. But the true test of the depth of our forgiveness quality only truly comes out when those who've hurt us the most ask for our forgiveness or more commonly, their hearts cry out to ours to be caressed again as human hearts, that we give one more chance for love prevail. It's when it's most difficult to forgive that we most need to.
Dr Martin Luther King Jr. said it better: "The ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy."
Now for you, in moments of challenge, a challenge to forgive when forgiveness is most needed, where do you stand? (And it's most needed when you deny it). I wonder where I'd also stand. Will I stand on the side of my ego? Will I stand on the side of hatred - allowing its acid to consume me one piece of my soul at a time?
It's a very difficult and tricky situation to forgive those who hurt you the most in today's world, especially when you have to forgive them once again, and the third time too. People, including some voice in you, will label you a doormat. But I managed. I forgave at least two people who hurt me repeatedly, and the feeling now: Pure Relief. My heart is relieved of a burden that was pulling and dragging me down each and every day, silently and unbeknownst to me - until a scratched a bit deeper.
Forgiveness, difficult as it was, has had a mutual benefit for I'm definitely a better person now and my heart is a house of love. And hatred, once more, has been denied recognised residence in this heart. It will enter only by invasion and such invasions will also be fought out.
In your heart, and in the most meaningful and genuine of ways, forgive someone - regardless of the events leading to the pain. It will only make you a better person and grow the love in your heart and lessen the acid of hatred in it - something with the potential to consume you.
_Email this to a friend by clicking on the 'envelope' below_
4 comments:
On researching some more on this important issue of forgiveness, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. once again provided more light: "Don't ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have the compassion and understanding for those who hate us. We must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not totally responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight; we are always on the threshold of a new dawn."
And I remember again from the book the voice of the sacred one that still echo today in our memory: "...forgive them, for they know not what they are doing!"
Yesterday I read some pages from Mein Kampf and I could just not believe how it is possible for one person to possess such hatred towards other people.
Good post, Izz. From experience, I have learned that despite my good reasons for being injured when someone has harmed me, the person to lose the most by me allowing myself to be angry or resentful is none other than myself. Because by letting the sun go down on my anger, or by continuing to feed it with rational justification, I lose something precious in my heart.
One thing I've learned from this present situation with my mother's cancer is that the joyful song in my heart cannot in any way coexist with any anger, resentfulness or lack of forgiveness towards other people. Although I have previously often tried to steer myself to be the better person (and forgive), I know do it regardless of whether I think they deserve it or not, because I know that in my current state, I cannot carry that load that comes with bitterness. Not even a little trace of it. So out of pure self-existing reasons, I try my very hardest to never let the sun go down on my anger, because I do not have the energy nor the power to raise myself after the fall. We may have all the so called "right reasons" to be angry with someone else, but is there one of us who has not him/herself needed to be forgiven? And what would we be today if we had not received that?
"Don't let the sun go down on your anger."
I like that Star. Thanks a lot for the more insightful comment.
PS: Wishing mami ease in her body and strength in her heart.
Thanks Izz!
Glad that my hard learned life lessons are of value! :-)
My mom's a fighter, but she's being well taken care of from above. Although the odds are against her, I have a lot higher expectations than fears...
Post a Comment