We are commanded in the Bible to be forgiving people. By nature we tend to be able to forgive people for things they have done to us. However, we struggle on this side of the Heavenly realm with forgetting. I have to admit that forgivenss is much easier for me than forgetting. As a husband and father I have had chances to offer forgiveness to people close to my family or friends for the things they may have done or said to my girls. But, also as a father and husband I have struggled to forget what those people may have done.
I was reading about this lately and thinking about how I can move forward not only from a forgiveness standpoint, but also a forgetting standpoint. In Luke 17: 3-4, it states "Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him." The Lord calls for us to forgive seventy seven times as needed for those than commit trangressions against us. With every heart break, argument, struggle and things that occur to us we get a scar. Those scars do not heal as quickly as we would like.
In Isiah 43:18 we are told ""Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old". That is the struggle for me and it is real. At times I still want to punch someone in the face that did something to my wife or daughters. I know that sounds terrible but the struggle is real. Human emotions are far from what God is and we have to work on forgiveness and Forgetfullness skils to move forward and live a better life. Holding grudges not only takes a toll on the other person, but also future relationships and ourselves.
I found four simple ways some professor or counselor came up with that we can try to do for moving forward and being more forgiving and forgetful. 1. Forgive the smaller things first and let the process work itself out. 2. Find the bright side in things and learn from mistakes. 3. Talk out your feelings and allow that to help you forgive and forget. 4. Forgive yourself first.
Now lets take a Biblical look at forgiveness and forgetfullness. We are instructed in the word to be a forgiving and forgetfull people. We must offer these two things to others or we cannot move forward ourselves. We must seek to be a more humble, loving and kind hearted being. We see the greatest example of forgiveness in the Bible as Jesus took our place on a cross and died for our sins and trangressions. Forgiveness and Forgetfullness require a sacrafice that we must be willing to make and live with.
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