Unconditional Forgiveness

In my reading I came across a concept...unconditional forgiveness.

Sure, I had been taught pretty much my whole life that we should forgive, and ultimately forget the things that people do to us. Still, it always seemed so hard. Especially when it kept happening, and I kept getting hurt. As I got older it led to guarding my feelings, not reaching out, and building a figurative stone wall around my heart to protect myself. I thought I was forgiving...and I was trying to forget.

Well, through many different things, I was able to remove the wall, become more trusting, and try not to guard my feelings as much. :)

Still, I struggled with the forgiving. I tried to let go, but it was very easy to let one occurrence remind me of all the other times in my life when the same person would wound me. Because of this it would affect how I dealt with other people.

Enter in unconditional forgiveness. Being unconditionally forgiving does not mean you become a doormat. You don't let people walk all over you. What it does do, is give yourself the permission to forgive people before they hurt you by acknowledging that everyone is imperfect. None of us are perfect, and none of us will be perfect in this earthly life. It's not possible. We can work toward it, and do our best, but we will continually make mistakes.

Unconditional forgiveness, allows you to acknowledge this. It allows you to acknowledge this in yourself. I even had the chance to utilize it multiple times in the past few weeks. Things that would have hurt me and affected me deeply and then taken me a while to get over and then ultimately forgive...just wasn't there. The forgiveness happened almost instantly. It was bizarre almost how quickly it happened.

Then, I even noticed that feelings and instances that I had been hanging on to, trying to forgive people for, for a while...they were gone as well. How freeing! How wonderful! It truly has helped me understand what it means to forgive...and to not just forgive, but to unconditionally forgive. I found myself thinking, well, they aren't perfect. I don't like what they did, and in fact in one instance it did take me a day to work through it on an emotional level, BUT still, the forgiveness was there.

Unconditional forgiveness...try it. It will change your life, in a good way!