You may not see the forest for the trees when it comes to forgiveness, but there are valuable reasons why you should consider forgiveness as one of the options related to your anger, sadness, or other emotions tied to your situation.
Take a look at these reasons why you may want to forgive someone who hurt you:
Your emotions are unresolved.
As long as you carry the emotions tied to your situation, they will remain unresolved. Feeling angry, bitter, sad, or any other negative emotion comes from the space that wants justice and vindication. Mixed in with the muck and the mire are all sorts of distorted thoughts that perpetuate your unresolved emotions. This can make a mountain out of a molehill and rob you of the happiness that coexists with your pain. Letting go of the blame and need for vindication makes it possible to move through the situation and on with your life.
Pent up anger can cause physical illness.
Your bitterness or pain can morph into real physical illness, robbing you further than you’ve already been. Keeping the offense unresolved can lead to high blood pressure, anxieties, and worse. Doing your body the favor by forgiving can help ensure your health stays intact.
Forgiving can restore what has been lost.
Sometimes the rift between two people grows bigger than necessary. The pain lingers, the resentment grows, and the damage takes on a life of its own. Hashing things out and forgiving can allow for restoration and resolution more often than not. In times where the issues at hand are too grave and too big to resolve, forgiveness can still make it possible to stop the feedback loop playing in your head. If restoration may not be wise, letting go of what is eating you up is worth the effort.
The benefits of practicing forgiveness are emotional, physical, and practical.
Walking around with chronic anger and resentment can bleed over into all areas of life. There are a lot of benefits to finding the courage and practical ways to forgive. With forgiveness, you can move through your negative emotions and into the better space of acceptance, healthy boundaries, and grace.
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Brita Long is the pink and sparkly personality behind the Christian feminist lifestyle blog, Belle Brita. On her blog and social media, you’ll discover more than authentic storytelling–she’s brutally honest about pursuing a fulfilling and joyful life even with Crohn’s Disease and depression.
Laura is a part-time artist hoping to go full time someday. She has a little black bucket list book filled with adventures. She writes with the hope to inspire. She’s known to be quite the workaholic sometimes. She’s an INTJ- A and she believes a cup of hot tea can solve almost anything. She embraces perseverance. She’s spent a lot of time emerged in self-discovery practices over the last several years and finds she is still learning as she goes. She is here in the blogging world because she believes the buzz about self-care, wellness, and self-love needs to be heard. You can also find her writing over at www.blogfivebiz.com chatting about blogging and business stuff.
Charlene is a 30-year-old wife and fur-mama living in Portland, Oregon. She’s a follower of Christ, watcher of SciFi, reader of fantasy, singer of show tunes, and lover of her husband! She uses her blog, Enduring All Things to help couples build a marriage that will endure whatever comes their way.
I love kid’s fantasy movies. Hence the reference:
In “The Spiderwick Chronicles.” teenaged Jared and his family have moved. He’s not happy and gives his mother the silent treatment. As he holds out, she asks him, “You’re angry abut the move, I get that. Just what are you expecting your silent protest will get you?”
The same applies to holding out forgiveness, doesn’t it? For all the reasons you showed us, our protest against the one who has wronged us usually accomplishes nothing except our own hurt. What a good reminder that holding a grudge has no value and granting forgiveness, however difficult or challenging, is well worth it…xoxox
The link between our emotional state and physical health is often undervalued and underappreciated (even by those who aren’t sceptical about it)…I guess the impact of stress is more or less accepted across the board but too few would link unforgiveness as a source of stress as much as putting in 70h a week at work. I wonder when the awareness and culture change will come.
Forgiveness is just as much about you as it is the other person. In fact, sometimes forgiveness is mostly about you, especially in circumstances when you need to remove someone from your life. Offering forgiveness is a way to heal and to move on.
This post is so true! There are so many benefits to forgiving others! It’s incredible!