The year-end prayer on forgiveness prompted me to write on the same topic. Forgiveness is something I think about a lot.

Carrying around anger, disappointment, and resentment can feel like a dead weight, because those emotions drag us down. The person with whom we’re angry or disappointed in or resent may not even KNOW (or care) that we have those feelings. If we look at it from that angle, the only ones suffering are ourselves. What’s the point of that?

I’ve watched people let not forgiving ruin long-term relationships, tear families apart, and condemn themselves to a life without joy. I know someone who refuses to forgive her brother for committing suicide eleven years ago. Another person lives as though he considers life and its slights to be a contest where the winner is the one who has been most often offended.

Who among us doesn’t tick other people off? Who has never ever committed an offensive act or said a thoughtless word against another? I’m hoping, of course, that these were done unintentionally, but sometimes emotions get the best of us and we commit them intentionally.

Being absolutely forthright with you, I’m going to confess that not one but TWO people in December were kind enough to let me know my actions or words upset them. Thank God. Because I had no clue. I immediately and sincerely apologized and all is well. This provided me a humble opportunity to grow—to ask for and receive forgiveness.

I’ve also been on the receiving end of betrayal and other hurtful acts. But if I let all the misery from someone I loved forty years ago rule my life, I’d be an unhappy person. That man now has a terminal illness, and my heart and prayers go out to him. I forgave him totally all those years ago. I hope he forgave himself as well.

One of the verses of the song Forgiveness by Matthew West sums it up better than I can:

(Forgiveness will) clear the bitterness away. It can even set a prisoner free.
There is no end to what its power can do.
So let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace.
The prisoner that it really frees is you.

I had a close friend some years ago. But when something life-changing happened and I REALLY needed her, she wasn’t there for me. Her absence hurt me so badly that I let the friendship go. No fight, no tears, I just cut the cord and set us adrift from each other.

I recently came across some old photos of our two families and remembered the deep bonds of our friendship. An epiphany came forth…maybe she just wasn’t able to give what I needed back then. I let forgiveness wash over me. It was a gift to myself.

To my readers: So in the last hours of 2016, I encourage you to consider someone who has hurt you (recently or umpteen years ago) and forgive them. It doesn’t matter if they’re sorry or not. This is about US, not them. Let it go. Just let it go.