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The Power of Forgiveness

The definition of forgiveness is letting go of bad feelings for someone. We have all have found ourselves in situations where we had bad feelings for someone else. The key to true character is one’s ability to forgive another person when he or she hurts us. Forgiveness is very powerful and can improve the quality of your life immensely.

There are many reasons why we may develop bad feelings for other people. Some bad feelings are caused by accidental situations that may not be the other person’s fault. In those situations, it is most important that we practice forgiveness. In other cases, someone else might have been intentionally mean or unfair to us, hence making it harder to forgive. In all situations, the power lays within your control to asses the problem to determine why bad feelings occurred, and then determine the best possible solution that could lead to forgiveness.

Are you a forgiving person? Read the following situations and think about how you would handle each situation:

  1. A friend of yours accidentally spills his drink all over your favorite pair of shoes. Would you:
    1. Spill your drink all over your friend to get revenge?
    2. Never speak to your friend again?
    3. Forgive your friend because it was an accident and friendship is far more important than material things?
  2. You find out that one of your friends has been saying untrue, mean things about you behind your back. Would you:
    1. Say mean things about him or her?
    2. Stop speaking to your friend?
    3. Approach your friend and ask what is wrong?
  3. Your brother blames you for making a mess in the kitchen even though you were not home all day. Would you:
    1. Hit your brother?
    2. Refuse to help clean up the kitchen because you know that it wasn’t your mess?
    3. Explain to your brother that you didn’t make the mess, but offer to help him clean up if he needs the help?

If you answered (a) to any of the questions above, then you are a revengeful person and will most likely have more enemies than friends throughout life. If you answered (b) to any of the questions above, then you hold grudges and you will most likely lose friendships that you could have otherwise salvaged had you practiced forgiveness. If you answered (c) to the questions above, then you are smart enough to assess situations before reacting, and you know the power of forgiveness.

Unfortunate situations are part of life. We are all going to come across situations that generate bad feelings no matter how hard we try to avoid them. It is important to remember the power of forgiveness when confronted by these situations. If you take the time to assess each and every situation and apply forgiveness to eliminate the bad feelings, then the quality of your life will be much greater and you will have more friends than you ever imagined possible.