forgiveness

I just happened to stumble across this on Facebook and it so perfectly expanded on my thoughts from yesterday that I decided to share it here.

Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself for what happened.
For the mistakes you made.
For not showing up the way up the way you needed to.
For not being the person you wanted to be.
You’re human.

You did the best you could in the moment given what you knew and what you had, and that’s all you can ask of yourself. You’re still learning. You’re still finding your way. And that takes time. You’re allowed to give yourself that time. And you’re allowed to show up in the world imperfectly. You’re allowed to fail at things you tried hard for. You’re allowed to realize you made the wrong decision. You’re allowed to be someone who’s still figuring out their path and their purpose.

And you’re allowed to forgive yourself.

You can’t go back and change the decisions you’ve made, but you can choose what you do today. You can keep choosing, again and again. You can start over. And that’s where your power is. In today.

So no more beating yourself up. No more going over and over it again in your head and torturing yourself with the past. What happened, happened, and all the shame and self-hatred in the world won’t undo that.

Today, you’re starting over. Today, you’re moving forward with the new knowledge and experiences you have.
Today, you can be the person you want to be and live the life you want to live.

You’re not a bad person. You’re not a disappointment or a failure. You’re just human.

You’re still learning and growing and finding your way. And it’s okay. You’ll be okay. ॐ ❤

By Daniell Koepke

I was on the road this morning, on my way to meet my father and sister for breakfast, when a random thought entered my mind, then took root and became something more…

I have no idea how or why, but I found myself thinking about some of the horrible things people do to other people and wondering if I ever found myself in such a situation whether I would have enough faith and inner strength to react with compassion and forgiveness rather than fear and anger.

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” popped into my mind.

That, of course, brought the high example of Jesus to mind. And it occurred to me that the truth of the matter is, when someone is hurting another person, there’s always ignorance of what they’re doing.

Most of us are only focused on the here and now, so we think we know what we’re doing. But there are infinite subtle realities beyond the one we can see, and our ignorance of those subtle realities is exactly why we “know not” what we do; to ourselves and to the one “whole” of which we are a part.

I found myself thinking: “Father, forgive them for they knew not what they did”, extending this thought retroactively to anyone and everyone who I felt had ever hurt me.

And then it became: “Father, forgive me for I knew not what I did.”

Wow. Apply compassion and forgiveness to myself? What a concept. But the truth is, as one of my favorite Asha quotes says: “If I could of done better, I would of done better.” Time to let myself off the hook for not being perfect already , eh?

So, what about you?

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