Many of you that are also my facebook friends might have already seen this, but it is a lot easier to expand and explain thoughts on a blog than it is through a facebook status.
Forgiveness is an abstract concept. You have to decide what it means to you on your own. You can't pull out a box and pull out forgiveness folded up all nice and new. It doesn't work that way. I am learning a lot of new things at my internship and this is one of them. A lot of the people..well all of the people that attend the group therapy sessions that my internship provides have been through some tough times that would make it hard for anyone to forgive. Some people think that when someone has wronged them in order to forgive them they have to make that person part of their life again in order for them to be truly forgiven. That's not true at all.
Forgiving doesn't mean you are all the sudden best buddies with someone.
It doesn't even mean that you have to associate with the person you forgive.
It's different for everybody.
I think that's a good thing to remember.
Also, here is a little story:
The lion pride is different from many other groups in the animal kingdom. When a lion gets too old to hunt, it is not abandoned and left to die. It is used as a necessary part of hunting. The younger lions will find a herd of animals and then will lead the older lions around the herd and into an area that has tall grass, bushes, etc. where the older lions can be hidden from the herd. The young lions then go around the herd and begin to charge. The direction they move in pushes the herd TOWARD the older lions. When the herd gets close enough the older lions stand up and roar loudly. The younger lions remain silent. The older lions roar again and the frightened herd turns around and runs in the direction of the younger lions. This makes it easier for the younger lions to catch their prey. Unbeknownst to the herd, if they had kept going in the direction of the roar, they would have escaped unharmed. The older lions are not capable of catching and taking down prey. So it is with fear. We often run from the very thing that we can overcome. Sometimes we have to run toward the roar in order to move past our fear.
by Ann Grawrys
The end.
Forgiving doesn't mean you are all the sudden best buddies with someone.
It doesn't even mean that you have to associate with the person you forgive.
It's different for everybody.
I think that's a good thing to remember.
Also, here is a little story:
The lion pride is different from many other groups in the animal kingdom. When a lion gets too old to hunt, it is not abandoned and left to die. It is used as a necessary part of hunting. The younger lions will find a herd of animals and then will lead the older lions around the herd and into an area that has tall grass, bushes, etc. where the older lions can be hidden from the herd. The young lions then go around the herd and begin to charge. The direction they move in pushes the herd TOWARD the older lions. When the herd gets close enough the older lions stand up and roar loudly. The younger lions remain silent. The older lions roar again and the frightened herd turns around and runs in the direction of the younger lions. This makes it easier for the younger lions to catch their prey. Unbeknownst to the herd, if they had kept going in the direction of the roar, they would have escaped unharmed. The older lions are not capable of catching and taking down prey. So it is with fear. We often run from the very thing that we can overcome. Sometimes we have to run toward the roar in order to move past our fear.
by Ann Grawrys
The end.
Thanks for this post :) I think I will copy that story down in my journal. I really really like it.
ReplyDeleteLoved the lion story, but even more your thoughts on forgiveness. I hear stories all the time about people finally forgiving, and I always wonder - how do you know that you have finally done that. I know that there are people in my life that I have needed to forgive and think I have, and then something will spark the memory of how I was hurt, betrayed or offended and all that emotion returns. It is usually short-lived, but then I always wonder...have I really forgiven? Any thoughts?
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