What is meant by the gift of forgiveness?

Some would say it is the act of forgiving someone for something they have done to you. And they would be partly right. When we forgive, we are giving forgiveness for some wrongdoing to us. We say, you have done this to me, but I am going to forgive you and I'm not going to hold it against you.

But, in forgiving, we do not have to forget. And we probably won't forget. The worse the offense, the harder it will be to forget, and some say, to forgive.

If we are going to live our life on our terms we must learn to forgive. We let that incident go and put it away. We only need to bring it out again when we are trying to make decisions that this might be a learning experience from. If we really forgive there will be no need to throw it in the face of the perpetrator or to dwell on it in our own mind.

Forgiveness can be one of the best gifts we will give ourselves. For if we do not forgive for those things done to us then we carry it around with us day in and day out. We dwell on it. We let it control our lives. We let it dictate what we will do today because we have to make time to think about it and deal with it.

Once we forgive of that offense, then we can let it go and not have to deal with it anymore. Again, we don't necessarily forget it, we just forgive that it was done to us so we can get on with our lives. Sometimes we have to dig down really deep to be able to forgive, but once we do that a burden is lifted. A resentment is lifted.

Why are we going to let someone have that kind of control over us? Just think about it. If a person knows that they can do something to hurt you, they want to do something to hurt you, and you continue to live with that hurt day in and day out, you are living with that person every day.

If you let it go, you forgive them, then you don't have to deal with it anymore. They have no hold on you any longer and you can do the things that make you happy. You will feel lighter, happier, and free.

So what is meant by the gift of forgiving? Maybe it is the best gift you can give yourself.