This I Believe

I believe in forgiveness. To hate someone because they’ve hurt you, to hate yourself because you’ve made bad decisions is easy, but to be able to forgive those who have hurt you and to forgive yourself, that takes courage. We’ve all made mistakes, that’s just part of growing up, but when those mistakes start to weigh you down and become too much to handle, we need to forgive. To forgive yourself is one of the hardest things to do, because we are our own worst critic, but by forgiving ourselves we can learn to forgive others. We’ve all been hurt and we’ve all hurt others, I can’t count how many times I’ve said I’m sorry for hurting someone, and I’ve received countless I’m sorrys also. But by forgiving those people I’ve become a stronger and happier person, because I no longer carry the anger and resentment I’ve once felt toward them. We’re only human, we all make mistakes, and I believe in forgiving people for that.
Forgiving ourselves is, in my opinion, one of the hardest things to do. To understand that you as a person are not perfect and are allowed to make mistakes is difficult. But even more difficult then that is to make those mistakes and forgive ourselves. But by doing just that, we no longer have to kill ourselves wondering where we went wrong, why we did what we did and how we could have been so reckless. By forgiving ourselves we can let it go and move on, worry about other things and get to living our lives again. And maybe be forgiving ourselves, forgiving others will come easier.
We’ve all been hurt by someone and it’s especially hard when it’s someone we care about. But just like we make mistakes, so do they. And when they offer up an apology, I believe in accepting them. I believe that they do deserve a second chance and forgiving them is better then hating them. When one of my best friends was hurt by another friend, she completely cut that girl out of her life. And at first it was okay, but it’s been months now and she still harbors strong feelings of resentment. Instead of letting go and moving on, she’s angry all the time. I believe that if she could just forgive, the bad feelings would go away, and she would start to heal.
Everyone at some point needs to find forgiveness, whether it’s within ourselves or with another person, forgiving each other for the wrongs we’ve committed is courageous. I believe that we all need to try for this, to rebuild the bridges we’ve burned and to let go of the bad things. Because if we learn to forgive, we can truly let go of the things we’ve done. I believe in forgiveness.