I forgive,
so I may live more freely.
You should too.
Let’s do it together…
Repeat after me aloud and fill in the blanks.
I forgive _________
for the hurtful words he or she said.
I forgive _________
for what they did that damaged my soul.
I forgive _________
for the neglect that they have caused me to go through.
I recognize that all people are damaged and they need help themselves.
I relinquish all unforgiveness and I walk anew in freedom. I will not hold on to unforgiveness,
bitterness,
or anger towards anyone.
I am free to be who I was made to be.
I choose a lifestyle of forgiveness
because if I can be forgiven, then I can also forgive others too!
Amen.
About the Creator
Rowan Finley
Father. Academic Advisor. Musician. Writer. My real name is Jesse Balogh.
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Foot Bindings
I asked my grandmother how she knew she'd fallen in love. I am not sure I ever did love him, she said. This was before I met my husband. I was naive, a naked spring, a raw nerve of a thing. That cannot ever be me, I knew. Sadness swept in gently like a Moscow thaw. It is no simple thing, looking into a woman's vast soul and seeing its foot bindings. Now, in Italy divorced with my skin singed off, when I say I don't love him mean: I have succeeded at feeling nothing most days and it mostly works. Do you want the comfort of Nothing? Do you want Nothing, too? Be warned: you'll never be free, even when you are nothing. Here is what doesn't work: Accepting the stages of grief. Talking about it. Sitting with the feeling. Missing him—no, the person you were when you believed in death do us part. Writing poetry. That, too. When I say I don't love him I mean: I feel capsized in an endless, starved tide. What sometimes works: selective memory. You must forget ripe tomatoes and his beard and feeling perfectly sheltered in a big blue world. Forget coffee in bed, laughter watching TV, blowing out the candles on the birthday cake and the quiet all-encompassing knowledge that you are chosen. Remember only how love turned to a banal everyday survival act, a trapeze act unsure whether he will catch you, how the warmth stagnated and became sour, remember the foot bindings and remember the resentment boiling in your veins as you stick it out for the kids. Six-hour Netflix binges help, too. A man's fingers tracing your spine. Frozen pizza at 2 a.m. Random trips to the museum just to stand near things that last a while. The realization that crying won’t change anything. Seeing that life is just a dream, and refusing to participate in your own suffering. Bite your fist. Walk on eggshells around joy. When I say I don't love him, I mean he didn’t break my heart, he just stopped touching it and it forgot how to beat right.
By Ella Bogdanova2 days ago in Poets
Comments (6)
Certainly one of the hardest, and yet freeing things to do.
Forgiveness is a process and it’s not linear. Which isn’t to say we shouldn’t try. We can seek forgiveness, choose forgiveness, but in the end forgiveness is vested in our desire to love, find peace, and tell the truth. The temporal pain and hurt we feel is real. The healing that we experience, the forgiveness and reconciliation we desire, is almost supernatural.
Forgiveness is powerful. I've seen it free people from grudges. Saying those words aloud, like you suggest, can really shift your mindset. It's worth a try.
Such a gentle but powerful reset! what does forgiveness mean to you personally? how you define it in your own heart?
What a beautiful prayer! Forgiveness is for the forgiver, to set them free from the stronghold of bitterness. I feel like a lot of problems are caused by Unforgiveness, but it's not recognized as such. I love this prayer a lot! 😇😊
I am not sure I am able to forgive some individuals. It’s good if you have that capacity. It might not be within me. Anyway, I don’t feel obliged.