Origin of Forgiveness

Pain plus time plus dark empty rooms where once were constant motion and children's laugh is a bitter recipe for hatred.  As positive as you think you are and as kind as you want to be you won't be able to help but to contemplate the possibility of revenge.  But, what does an eye for an eye really accomplish? 

There are always those who hurt us, some intentionally and some not, sometimes we hurt ourselves and our loved ones.  Human basic instinct is to survive.  We attempt to destroy and remove anything and anyone who causes us pain.  But pain is also a driver to a better you, with time it makes us into who we need to be, it teaches us understanding and empathy.  Pain, if used wisely, can fuel the fight towards a better more civilized society. 

You get to do a lot of grown up thinking when children are not around weighing the importance of different values and beliefs, weighing the importance of love, hate, money and forgiveness, compromises you are willing and unwilling to make, parenting, public opinions and who you are. 

All that brought me to the origin of forgiveness.  It is our first instinct to destroy, but what about forgiveness.  Where did it come from?  What does it do and do we really need it?  You will have a hard time finding any mention of forgiveness before Jesus and his groundbreaking teaching.  He was inspiring people to love instead of hate, to forgive instead of punishment and to be kind to one another.  So...  The reality is that we have to be taught to forgive and we have to teach others to do the same.  And how do we teach others?  By example.  

Forgive - and you will be forgiven, love - and you will be loved, let go - and you will be happy; treat others like you want to be treated...  This is over two thousand years later and we are still barely grasping these immortal concepts of kindness.  

Recently I discovered a valuable importance of forgiveness: it does more for the person that is forgiving than for the person that has been forgiven.  The reality is that the only way to move on with your life and to be truly happy is to learn to forgive; because hatred is a miserable feeling that doesn't just destroy those around you but it brings you down with all the memories and fears that come with carrying around in your soul long gone painful experiences of the past.  Hatred is fueled with memories of pain and memories of pain keep you caged up in your painful past. 

Sometimes I wonder how much pain we can handle?  And so far my answer is: as much as one willing to put us through; with sometimes that one being ourselves.  

In the art of forgiveness we need not forget the experiences we have been through, we are simply to let go of the pain, with the most challenging experience of forgiving being forgiving yourself.  Forgive others, forgive yourself, and it's time to move on towards a more compassionate future that begins with the more compassionate system for future generations to come and the Innocent Tears Act.  

Promote and Support DFPS reform!  

Don't do it for yourself.  Do it for your children and their children.  Let go of the pain and let's work towards a better future for our kids together. 

A less stressful future for our children guarantees a less stressful retirement for us!