Today's A New Day

Dwelling on the past.

We all do it at times, and it can cause us and all those we love great distress. Dwelling on our past—our mistakes, failures and what other people have done to us; can and will hinder us from moving forward and having peace in our lives.

I love the old Serenity Prayer:

"God; grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Accepting the things that we cannot change.  That's half the battle.  And we cannot change the past.

But we can move on from the past. 

Wisdom is changing the things that we can change, and you can choose to forgive someone from your heart... if you are willing.

Just let it go. 

How can we do that? 

Try forgiveness. 

Contemplating the great need for forgiveness reminds me of the chorus in the song by Don Henley, "The Heart of the Matter."

"There are people in your life who've come and gone. They've let you down, you know they hurt your pride.  You better put it all behind you; 'cause life goes on, if you keep carrying around that anger it will eat you up inside. I've been trying to get back, to the heart of the matter, but my will gets weak and my thoughts seem to scatter but I think it's about; forgiveness... forgiveness, even if, even if, you don't love me anymore."

Refusing to forgive someone who has hurt you is a self-inflicted prison of bitterness and resentment.  And when we refuse to forgive—it hurts us most.  We may think we are 'getting back' at him or her for what they did to us.  But we only succeed in making ourselves a prisoner of our own unforgiveness. 

Forgiving someone who has truly wronged you or hurt you is not saying that what they did to you was 'okay.'   It's not okay. 

What they did was wrong.

But choosing to forgive someone from your heart, is acknowledging that even though they may have truly wronged you; you are choosing to release them from the debt of your unforgiveness. And when you make that choice to release them from that debt—you are setting yourself free.  Free from the prison of a hardened heart.

You are now free to move on with your life, and not dwell on the past. Free from bitterness and resentment.  Free from unforgiveness.

Forgiveness.  That is the heart of the matter. 

If you truly want to have a heart that is healed and set free to love others—choose forgiveness.

—Be free.