FORGIVENESS...

Forgiveness is generally defined as a merciful act that has to be carried out by both decisional and emotional forgiveness thereby it has been part of my life. Each and every day I’m forcing myself to forgive and forget those unpleasant moments in my life.

Forgiveness is empathy. I believe it means, putting one’s self in the position of the other person, and wiping away any sort of resentment and antagonism we feel toward them. Forgiveness is a journey to freedom. It works directly on the emotion of anger, resentment, hostility, and hatred by diminishing its intensity or level within the mind and heart. Only the one who is wronged can forgive. Only those they sinned against have the right to forgive, and those they murdered are dead, and therefore cannot forgive them.

There is another way of looking at the world where we can choose whether we want to experience peace or conflict, to experience love or fear. We can choose how we perceive ourselves, others, and the world around us. We have the choice, and the willingness and the courage to forgive, that offer us the greatest gift we can give not only to others, but to ourselves too.

My personal reflection of forgiveness is when you forget about the past, no longer wanting to hurt those who hurt us, and moving on. In my life, I have experienced many instances in which I have had to forgive but not forget. For instance, when I was at the tender age of 3, my busy working parents had appointed a young lady to look after me since my relatives are unwilling to take care of me on the absences of my parents due to their packed schedule. The lady was very good. She was looking after me and my school going siblings very well.

 One day all of the sudden, the lady had burned my skin using the rice cooker’s cover which was so hot without any particular reason for the unmerciful act towards me. She was caught red handed by my mother who had just came to check on me as usual after attending to her patients at the clinic. My mother had shocked to see what is happening to me.

Immediately, she took me to the clinic and treat on the wound on my hand. The incident had occurred 18 years back and now I had forgive her for her unmerciful act but the burned marked is still on my skin which makes me not to forget the incident although i was just 3 at that time. Maybe God wants me to remember the incident and to learn from my hurts, to grow in wisdom. To forgive is to forget, but only in the sense of not remembering to "get even," of not harbouring a grudge, of not continually bringing up the past hurt. Our life experiences are not to be forgotten but remembered, and used as the basis for the decisions we make. Forgiveness to me is very important and is essential in my family, friends, and other relationships.

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."