Forgiveness🙏 a topic we all think about
Updated: 4 days ago
Leaves scooting across the landscape, crunching under your feet, a nip in the air, and the Holidays full steam ahead. Oh my God, FAMILY and FRIENDS gathered in one room!
🎁 🥜 🍂🎄🍂🥜 🎁

Forgiveness—it’s a topic we all think about. When we have people in our life, we can have conflict because not everyone thinks, feels, loves, understands, nurtures, and needs are the same. It is as certain as God made little green apples conflict will appear. Sometimes it materializes from people’s words or actions. A human characteristic we can control. Unfortunately, the worst conflicts can come from those we admire, love, and whom we think about a great deal.
I recall a time when a person I admired and loved said some very cutting words and their actions even scared me. I guess you could say, off the wall, in anger, possibly the act of jealousy. I was deeply wounded by unnecessary careless words, their beliefs and actions. Is the person who said the words a bad person? Not at all, but people often think they can speak to people however they want without consequence. There is that word: consequence. I write and think about consequences a lot. The result or effect of an action or circumstance. A place of pride and arrogance is where consequence reverberates over and over in our heads. The unresolved lingering hurt from someone else’s words or actions. Someone you loved as a friend or loved one never considered their words may have been spiteful, harmful, and even hateful.
Sadly, this person’s words pierced so deep it impacted the way I viewed them and the way I think of them. It’s caught in my mind like a spiderweb. Not only their words but their actions. I still love them deeply and would do anything for them, and I only wish them the best in life. But the respect I once held for them is gone, gone forever, along with trust. My vision of them was tainted like a polluted landfill.
The wall that went up between us many times over the years either went unnoticed by the person or they simply didn’t care. I think they enjoy watching and living in the contamination of their words. It fuels them. Because they never let go of their pride or their vision or words to fix what they broke.
Actually, an apology honestly would feel like a punch to the gut–or pouring salt in a wound. Because an apology by a person who lives to manipulate isn’t genuine. Their actions will never change. It’s a thought pattern that makes them comfortable. I know in my own life, apologizing is like a tattered sweater. You have this love for your favorite sweater. Unfortunately, it’s worn to a frazzle, and it never looks or feels the same again.
I avoid this person at all costs. If I saw them, I’d turn and run to keep from talking to them. Even wearing a brand-new sweater, I’d be fearful they would start tearing it apart. I know minor conflicts over the years with this person are like a fire I cannot put out. As with the first incident, or second or third, I learned how to stop, drop, and roll, to avoid their words from tearing me apart.
