Many people struggle with the idea of forgiveness for many reasons.  The biggest reason often is because the hurt and pain that someone else has inflicted on them is so great, so deep, that the idea of forgiveness seems impossible.  Indeed, there are many wounds in life that are very hard to forgive.  Abuse, betrayal, lies, cheating, and many others create great pain and tension in our lives.  The problem with not being able to eventually forgive, is that we continue to carry these wounds with us.  They stay with us until we are able to set them free through forgiveness.  Worse than that, we allow the people that inflicted them upon us to have power in our lives until we forgive them.

Forgiveness does not mean that you will forget what happened.  Forgiveness does not mean that it still won’t hurt.  Forgiveness does not mean that what happened is okay.  It simply means that you are canceling the debt that the person who hurt you owes.  It means that they no longer have power in your life because you no longer hold anything against them.  That does not mean that you will be friends with them again or trust them again.  You may never speak to them again.  But they no longer have negative power in your life because you have forgiven them.

We encourage you to sit down and write out all the hurts and losses of your life.  If any of those have to do with a person, we encourage you to write out a statement of forgiveness to that person when you are ready.  This statement is just for you, you will not send it to them.  We hope that you can be free of the hurts and wounds of your life.  Forgiveness is a powerful part of that journey.  If you would like to work on the wounds of your life or have any questions about forgiveness, please feel free to contact us a www.olivercounseling.com.