What is forgiveness really?
A few months ago in therapy, we were discussing my past traumas and the people that impacted me most. My therapist asked me if I thought I could ever offer them forgiveness, to which I replied no!
I explained that I believed to offer forgiveness would mean invalidating myself, my feelings, and my experiences. While he agreed with my thought process, he recommended Forgiving What You Can’t Forget to me, and it has completely transformed everything I thought I knew about forgiveness!
Reasons why:
🔅Considers a biblical perspective of forgiveness. If Jesus could sacrifice himself for our sins and STILL ask for God to grant us forgiveness, then I can certainly forgive those who have hurt me, too. God asks us to forgive others as Christ would, not for us to be naive, but to protect our hearts from holding so much hurt.
🔅Validates the hurt! This book does NOT overlook the struggles that come from pain. It does not urge you to forget about what has happened to you. Instead, it gently encourages you to relinquish yourself of the pain others have caused by forgiving them in both your heart and mind.
🔅It is possible to forgive AND still set boundaries. The two are not mutually exclusive. Whole forgiveness allows us to let go of the pain, we can still protect ourselves from allowing hurtful patterns to continue.
#forgiveness #healingthroughreading #therapyreading #christianbooks #bookrecommendations
Forgiveness can often feel complex and challenging, especially when it comes to trauma and pain inflicted by others. In discussing forgiveness, one must acknowledge that it doesn’t mean condoning harmful actions. Instead, it represents a liberating choice to release resentment and pain. Lysa TerKeurst's book, "Forgiving What You Can't Forget," plays a crucial role in this exploration by guiding readers through the emotional landscape of forgiveness. This book emphasizes that validating your hurt is essential in the process of forgiving. Forgiveness should not rush you past the pain, but rather encourage a gentle release of it, allowing you to reclaim peace in your life. By reframing forgiveness through a biblical lens, the text illustrates forgiveness as a divine directive meant to protect our hearts and souls. Moreover, many find it empowering to understand that forgiveness and boundary-setting are not opposing ideas. You can forgive someone for their actions and still enforce limits to safeguard your emotional well-being. This duality contributes to deeper healing without the risk of falling into past patterns of harm. Healing from emotional wounds largely relates to the choices we make about forgiveness. By actively working on forgiving, we cultivate mental resilience, leading us toward a life free from the weight of bitterness. Each small step toward understanding this concept is a step toward greater emotional freedom.
I’ve been wanting to buy this ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜