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Forgiveness and healing
Forgiveness promotes healing, and healing supports forgiveness; they are two different sides of the same coin. Unforgiving thoughts foster fear, hatred, and, on a grand scale, war and death. But an overly simplistic approach to forgiveness, such as, “Oh, never mind. Just forgive and forget!” only soothes personal resentment and sometimes postpones permanent healing. I’m continually learning that the key to true forgiveness is understanding more about God’s unconditional love. Love cannot develop and grow when there is an absence of forgiveness.
True forgiveness always starts with healing our own thoughts, rather than the thoughts of others, because grievances are often based upon our perception of what we think others are thinking about us or doing to us. A mild annoyance can sometimes feel the same as a huge wrong, because both build walls around our hearts.
About the author
Tom Taffel lives in San Francisco, California.
