We all understand the general concept of forgiveness, but most of us are not especially proficient on the specifics on how to do it. So, in my next posts I'll be talking about forgiveness and what the action of accepting and releasing forgiveness for our lives...
Let's take a look at the first step
. Acknowledge that you have been seriously hurt.
- The starting point for being pursuing forgiveness is to admit that you’ve really been hurt. We like to pretend like what he said didn’t really bother us or what she did didn’t even phase us, but until we are willing to admit that we were hurt by them, we’re not in a place where we can begin to pursue forgiveness.
- There are many incidents in life that are not candidates for forgiveness - things like minor disappointments or passing slights. Situations that require forgiveness are ones where the pain inflicted is personal, unfair, and deep. Things like betrayal and brutality (physical or emotional) come to mind.
- At this point, as we hurt, we are likely to find some hatred in our heart. Hatred, of course, is never a good thing, but we must be careful that we don’t try to get rid of it by covering it up. When we find that hate in our heart, that’s simply a sign we’re going to need to forgive.
