One fine afternoon, I heard my 4-year-old daughter crying. I came and asked her what the matter was. She told me she was hit on the head by another child. This child was only 2 years old and was playing with her at that time. So, I just told her to go inside the house and not to play with him anymore, but she insisted to stay outside and play alone. After a few minutes, she cried again for the same reason. I was agitated. I called her to come inside the house and then, talked to her. I told my daughter to stay away from the kid and to fight in case someone tries to hurt her. She asked why and said that fighting is bad. I was stunned and thought that maybe I was using the wrong word. All I wanted was for her to defend herself. She understood what I meant and asked me if she could play with the kid again because she has forgiven him already.
Has something like this ever happened to you? How did you feel? Most of us would really want to take revenge or hate those who are unkind to us. When I saw my daughter enjoying again with the innocent kid who unknowingly hurt her, I learned my lesson. Forgiveness brings joy and peace. Forgiveness doesn’t mean we let someone hurt us. It means to feel love for that person even though he/she has hurt us or made us angry. It means changing our angry feelings to kind feelings and not hurting them back.
Forgiving others is easy to say but hard to do. In many circumstances, we found it difficult to forgive others and even ourselves. It is not always easy to forgive others when we have been hurt. Yes, forgiving someone is difficult but possible. Jesus has told us that we should forgive one another just as He forgives us. He promised that the sweet peace of forgiveness will be ours when we forgive.
When we are told to forgive all men, that includes our own selves. Sometimes, it is hard to forgive oneself too. When I made bad decisions or mistakes, I easily feel bitter about myself. But I realized that for me to receive forgiveness and feel the joy and cleansing again, I have to repent and change. Self-forgiveness is part of the process of repentance. Forgiving oneself doesn’t mean excusing our wrongdoings. It means turning back to the right way and making amends or doing something to correct our mistakes.
Forgiveness removes the burden of guilt of our past sins and heals our wounded hearts. Seeing my daughter playing happily with someone who had hurt her teaches me that I can be happy again when I forgive the one who had wronged me and when I repent my wrongdoings.
By: Joselyn L. Gardoci|Teacher III|Bataan National High School|Balanga City, Bataan
