Any Moment That Opens Us Up To

When We Forgive Someone, We Do Not Forget The Hurtful Act, As If Forgetting Came Along With The Forgiveness Package, The Way Strings Come With A Violin. Begin With The Basics. If You Forget, You Will Not Forgive At All. You Can Never Forgive People For Things You Have Forgotten About. You Need To Forgive Precisely Because You Have Not Forgotten What Someone Did; Your Memory Keeps The Pain Alive Long After The Hurt Has Stopped. Remembering Is The Storage Of Pain. It Is Why You Need To Be Healed In The First Place.

Because Arrogance Is Born In Personal Vanity, Arrogant People Are Driven Without Mercy. They Can Never Get Enough Power To Fill The Soul's Needs Or Enough Respect To Overcome The Fear That They Deserve Less Than They Are Getting.

When Forgiveness Is Necessary, Don't Wait Too Long. We Must Begin To Forgive, Because Without Forgiving, We Choke Off Our Own Joy; We Kill Our Own Soul. People Carrying Hate And Resentment Can Invest Themselves So Deeply In That Resentment That They Gradually Define Themselves In Terms Of It.

Forgiving Does Not Usually Happen At Once. It Is A Process, Sometimes A Long One, Especially When It Comes To Wounds Gouged Deep. And We Must Expect Some Lapses...some People Seem To Manage To Finish Off Forgiving In One Swoop Of The Heart. But When They Do, You Can Bet They Are Forgiving Flesh Wounds. Deeper Cuts Take More Time And Can Use A Second Coat.

I Have Discovered That Most People Who Tell Me That They Cannot Forgive A Person Who Wronged Them Are Handicapped By A Mistaken Understanding Of What Forgiving Is.