I Forgive You

I was really touched when family members of those callously murdered in North Carolina had the opportunity to confront the murderer just a day after the killing spree. The first family member to speak began with these three words: “I forgive you.”  When I heard these three words, my heart was deeply touched and filled with love and compassion for these beautiful people. “I forgive you!”

Forgiveness…who is the benefactor? Is it the person who has offended? Or is it the forgiver?   To answer that question, let’s look at the consequences of holding hate, anger and revenge. When we hold negative emotions, we are the ones who suffer. We suffer because we have condemned ourselves to experience the effects these negative emotions have in our minds and bodies. When we are filled with negative emotions we lose the ability to experience peace.   If we allow these negative emotions to continue they will affect our health. Our negative emotions affect US, they have no power to affect the offender.  So, forgiveness is a gift we give to ourselves.

When I see the divisiveness present today, I am struck by the number of people who carry around many “hurts” they or their ancestors have endured. They wear those “Hurts” like a badge of honor.  Some of these “Hurts” go back to the Old Testament and Father Abraham. For heaven’s sake! It is like these people carry around their “Hurts” in an old manure filled gunny sack thrown over their shoulder. When anyone seems to forget or disrespect their “Hurts”, they whip the “Hurt” back to life and sprinkle manure as they go.

We are all in this life together. We are one humanity. It is time we stopped dividing ourselves into special groups with special “Hurts” that need attention. Life is not about US versus THEM. We are all one humanity. Drop the need to identify with your “Hurts”. Recognize the humanity within everyone and say once and for all, I FORGIVE YOU.  Then we can move forward to build the kind of society we all want.

For now, Earlynn’s just sayin’: “It’s time for statesmen to step forward. We do not need more politicians. We need leaders to lead us – not divide us”.

http://earlynnsjustsayin.org/inspirational-thought-2/

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