Forgiving Yourself is OK!

Have you ever done something that you are still holding on to?

Do you keep replaying it over and over in your mind, and keep asking yourself why?

Why did I do that? or How could I have done that? 

My favorite one was, “I can not believe I did that.”

We are make mistakes. No one is perfect.

I have said and done some really mean and horrible things, but thank you Lord for helping me to change and to see things in a different light.

One of the best things about a mistake is that it helps you change and learn from it. Without mistakes, you wouldn’t know what works and what doesn’t. You wouldn’t see the growth in yourself without mistakes. Trial and error, you are learning constantly.

We grow as individuals from mistakes. The hardest part about a mistake is we tend to let them dwell and fester until it takes over our thought process and sits on our hearts. We have to teach our minds to think of a mistake as just that, a mistake, learn from it, forgive yourself, and move on.

I  wonder why we forgive others so easily, but we don’t forgive ourselves as fast. It’s a mistake not a life sentence.

I didn’t always use to be a forgiver. I would hold grudges and quit speaking to people.  Then I realized something, I could have been hurting someone else by doing these things and also, I am taking away what God has for me. I’m going to miss my blessing focusing on hurt feelings and grudges.

I missed my best friend Misty’s wedding due to hurt feelings and holding a grudge. Thank you God we are still friends today. Throwing away 30 plus years of friendship would have been worse and I thank God everyday for her continued loyal friendship.

We tend to miss our blessings when we hold grudges. We are so focused on the grudge or trying to figure out how to get even, we can’t see what God has for us.

When we as humans operate on feelings, we tend to make it extremely worse than it actually is. When we put feelings in the way of the actual offense, we will think something and automatically think this is right, let me continue to act this way. I can not stress enough, we as humans can not operate on hurt feelings. 

Forgiving someone can be a challenge, but remember that forgiveness is for you not for the other person. When we don’t forgive and keep holding on to the hurt, we are holding ourselves hostage to the pain and hurt and this is what holds back all your blessings and growth.

God wants to see you happy and living life to the fullest, not hurt or upset or dwelling on grudges.

We have to train our minds that a mistake is not a prison sentence. We are to learn from them and move on. If we hurt someone, apologize and move forward. You can not change the past, but you can learn from it an grow.

Forgiving yourself and others is also part of self care. Forgiving breaks any negative thoughts you may have or negative feelings you may be holding onto.

REMEMBER, A NEGATIVE MIND WILL NOT PRODUCE A POSITIVE LIFE! 

I encourage everyone to commit 14 days to forgiveness. Whether is be forgiving yourself or forgiving someone else. Read the Bible and find 14 scriptures on forgiveness and study each one daily. Keep a daily journal of your progress and see how much your life and attitude changes when you truly forgive yourself and others and move on to the life God has for you.

Blessings.