The holiday season brings out the best in all of us. The majority of charitable deeds and showing of good will is done this time of year. We sing about love, joy and peace as we spend most of our time looking for things to do or buy for people we know.
In the midst of all the good times, the holiday season can be spoiled by holding and harboring wrongs that have been committed against us.
They tend to keep us away from gatherings or maybe not participating, as we should. We should strive to forgive and forget instead of holding and harboring wrongs committed against us.
All of us have had wrongs committed against us, whether big or small, in all areas of our life. In fact most of the time, people don't even know they have been offensive since most wrongs are forgiven in secret.
Yet, these incidents can add up over time and have a negative affect on that relationship and our attitude towards others. They only add to the stress already present in our life and could possibly lead to health problems since our emotional health is intricately connected to our physical health. Exercising forgiveness keeps us healthy both inside and out.
Some relationships are more emotionally draining than others and take a lot of forgiveness to maintain. It's important that we forgive the small things as they arise because they multiply over time. Before we know it a little snowball of a disagreement has turned into an avalanche of anger about to slide. The stress and anxiety adds tension to the relationship; we need to apply forgiveness and let it go.
This doesn't mean that things won't be altered as a result. Relationships change and evolve, they improve or worsen, some are ripe for improvement and some are doomed to failure. But all of them offer an opportunity for us to learn and grow.
Forgiving is one thing, but to forget is to act as though the wrong had not occurred which is difficult but possible, with some time. We cannot delete what has happened, but we can act as though it has not happened and still learn from the incident.
Forgetting wrongs only improves the chance that a relationship will survive or at the least, you learn from what you have experienced. We should bury the past and put it to rest, applying what we have learned to new relationships we receive.
Forgiveness is how we show love and forgetting the wrong is the payment or assurance of forgiveness.
These two qualities are essential to any relationship whether it be marriage, friends, family or work. We should remember that we need these qualities applied to us just as much as we need to apply them to others.
So this holiday season as we are thinking of what gifts to give, we should strive to forgive and forget and therefore get the true meaning out of love, joy and peace.
http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-jo...icle_bd6b3fdc-1cae-55d0-8fcb-b9794cf2d83a.htm
Merry Christmas to every member on OTz from Newbie to Old Timers!
In the midst of all the good times, the holiday season can be spoiled by holding and harboring wrongs that have been committed against us.
They tend to keep us away from gatherings or maybe not participating, as we should. We should strive to forgive and forget instead of holding and harboring wrongs committed against us.
All of us have had wrongs committed against us, whether big or small, in all areas of our life. In fact most of the time, people don't even know they have been offensive since most wrongs are forgiven in secret.
Yet, these incidents can add up over time and have a negative affect on that relationship and our attitude towards others. They only add to the stress already present in our life and could possibly lead to health problems since our emotional health is intricately connected to our physical health. Exercising forgiveness keeps us healthy both inside and out.
Some relationships are more emotionally draining than others and take a lot of forgiveness to maintain. It's important that we forgive the small things as they arise because they multiply over time. Before we know it a little snowball of a disagreement has turned into an avalanche of anger about to slide. The stress and anxiety adds tension to the relationship; we need to apply forgiveness and let it go.
This doesn't mean that things won't be altered as a result. Relationships change and evolve, they improve or worsen, some are ripe for improvement and some are doomed to failure. But all of them offer an opportunity for us to learn and grow.
Forgiving is one thing, but to forget is to act as though the wrong had not occurred which is difficult but possible, with some time. We cannot delete what has happened, but we can act as though it has not happened and still learn from the incident.
Forgetting wrongs only improves the chance that a relationship will survive or at the least, you learn from what you have experienced. We should bury the past and put it to rest, applying what we have learned to new relationships we receive.
Forgiveness is how we show love and forgetting the wrong is the payment or assurance of forgiveness.
These two qualities are essential to any relationship whether it be marriage, friends, family or work. We should remember that we need these qualities applied to us just as much as we need to apply them to others.
So this holiday season as we are thinking of what gifts to give, we should strive to forgive and forget and therefore get the true meaning out of love, joy and peace.
http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-jo...icle_bd6b3fdc-1cae-55d0-8fcb-b9794cf2d83a.htm
Merry Christmas to every member on OTz from Newbie to Old Timers!
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