FROM MY BOOK DREAMS AND VISIONS THE FIRE IN MY SOUL
Forgiveness is not forgetting. We are taught from an early age to “forgive and forget.” However, this is often not realistic and is not valuable. It would be nice to be able to turn back the clock and erase the unpleasantness of our past, but it just isn’t possible. The real trick isn’t to forget the past, but to learn from the past and try to use it to help yourself and others both now and in the future.
Forgiveness is not condoning. Forgiving doesn’t mean that the past was okay or not so bad. We were hurt; it was painful; and it affected our lives. Forgiveness allows us to deal with the past in a more effective manner that doesn’t minimize the past, but rather minimizes the effects of that painful past on the present and our future. It in no way denies, justifies, or condones the original harm done to us in the past.
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