Do you think you could truly forgive people...?

I agree with you Bamboo , hi, I'm Andrea, I read your article, it's very beautiful. Your last question regarding the "FORT HOOD SHOOTER", Can you forgive someone like that? I understand your feeling. Sometimes you want peace for the world, but their are people who breaks the line. And it is not only true in your country but around the world. I remember one of my religion teacher in highschool, telling us in order to have peace in our country or among ourselves, you have to "FORGIVE AND FORGET." You know , while reflecting on the statement, it's hard to do. But our religion teacher told us, but if you can do it, you're a very compassionate and strong person. You know our religion teacher is a nun. Sometimes we get angry when we hear people doing things that are bad, up to the extent that we curse them from doing it. We want them to be jailed, to be punished and etc. Maybe the nun is correct. Only God has the right to punish people. If God had forgiven his enemies the more we have to forgive. You know until now, I cannot forget by religion teacher in highschool. Why? what he taught us has instilled the right values in us, until we graduated not only in highschool, college and then having family and so on. Truly, right education + right values in life is very important. So let's leave everything to God. Release everything to him and do what is right and everything will fall at tghe right place. Thank you. I love your article.

I cann't forgive the one who hurt me truly ...

Not only do I think I can forgive people, but I do forgive people. This a great personality trait. To be able to forgive and forget is helpful for the other person you are forgiving and for yourself. When you hold on to anger, the first victim is you. Your body shakes, your blood pressure rises, and all other sorts of symptoms manifest themselves. Why should we do that to ourselves? So, I think it is in everyone's best interest to forgive little things. As for the shooting incident, that is much harder to forgive and forget. We should just realize that people do lose their minds in this crazy world and due to some pressure or actual mental disturbance, these things happen. It is good to be able to forgive the person in this case, but not the incident. What happened must be brought to justice and unfortunately, the one who made the mistake must pay for it.

forgiveness wow thats a tuff one, ya know the bible says if we can not forgive each other how can we expect God to forgive us. And we all do bad things. Some worse than others ofcourse! But forgiveness is not for the person who did wrong its really for the one who was done wrong! I found this out the hard way as i was cruely hurt by a loved one and I kept that in my heart and it made me a bitter person. I thought of it all the time, I tried to figure out why it was done and I just couldnt let it go. So it just kept eating at me stealing my joy my happiness and my feelings of Love. When I decided to forgive and forget I started praying about and it the Lord showed me how it was really to benifit me. The person who did the deed was many moons away and they couldnt care less if I was still hurting or not and weather or not forgave them. So forgiveness is actually releasing the thing from your life and letting it go and in the long run you feel better about it. It is not an over night process for sure and I personally think it takes alot of prayer and strenghth and faith. Exspecially if someone murdered a love one or something so tramatic as that.

i life it may be really difficult to forgive us however there something i believe that whatever the situation may be the solution is always in our heart, and if you surely what to ask from me am sure i will try to forgive him.

in time...and my own exspireances life has brought me god told me from the bible, FORGIVNESS IS FOR YOU not for the bad person...even though they have done wrong that will be counted against them!BUT if you choose NOT to forgive thire wrong doing that will just come back on you for being selffish...although it may be hard too forgive one another at times, this is the best thing to do any try your haredt to help the person in need,only if they want to be helped. you can not force some out of a bad situation you have to let them want to be helped or else they will just overlook our good doing and not ever want to be help becuase they feel forced. like if some one tells you DO NOT DO IT it make you want to do it even more but if you give freedom they think...well should i or is it even worth it?....

Well, I believe the Best way to get on with our lives is to Forgive and to forget and to be able to move on. This means people close to you, and especially those who are just acquaintances you do not see very often as well. I know sometimes it is hard to do especially if they have really wronged you, like as in Rape, stole from you, beat you, etc. but when you do learn to forgive them and yourself you end up feeling so much better as well.

I think some crimes or just down right hurtful things will take longer to forgive than others. But I do agree that we can truely and honestly forgive other people. Even with violent crimes - you just never know where a person is in life, or what they have been in life, that makes them go off like that. You never know what is going thru someone's mind at that exact moment, and most of the time they don't either. I always to my best to give someone that extra chance... whether its easy to do or not. Not that I've killed anyone, or hospitalized or anything like that, but I know that personally, I have done some mean and hurtful things in my past that I regret... and in the whole picture, it doesn't make me a bad person, it just makes me a dumb@ss. Its just what happened at the time. I really hope that I have the forgiveness from some people. I had a boyfriend try and kill me and my daughter but in turn took his own life. I had to forgive myself before I could forgive him... but I did. I know his mind was lost - I know some of the fears he was facing... after it all came down, I had a slight idea of where his mind was at. I blamed myself for a bit and yadayada. I wish he was alive so that I could tell him that I forgive him... I went to his grave, its the best I can do. Okay so I'm rambling (as I normally do).. but people are just people. The only reason the crimes are getting worse... is because the availability to commit them is easier... or the information, props(weapons) all that stuff is readily available to everyone at all times. It just takes the right perso in the wrong mind set to actually do something with it.

it depends..and of course, it is also a process..sooner or later you will be able to forgive because it will make you feel better

Well, there must be a reason why people do that. Maybe personal reasons and there are factors contributing as to why they are like that. These are people who have problems they could not managed. They need psychiatric help and a lot of support from their family; emotional and psychological. Maybe if we can understand them, it would be easier to forgive. But it will take time because of the pain inflicted in us. I think i can forgive offenders.

It would be truly difficult in the beginning. Because in our mind, all we have is that hateful picture of that incident. For me, I know the Lord asks me to forgive all, so I do try to, even though it takes a long time. I do it by trying to understand why a person could do something like that to others, or to me. In most cases I found out that he/she is a victim of abusive parents, abusive school friends,...etc, so that they don't believe anymore in human kind or in life. That's why they try to destroy other life too.

hi,BambooPanda!I think it depends on what problem it is and how long it has happened and who did it.if it is not a big deal,most people would like to forgive.if it is serious,people maybe gradually forgive as time goes by.if it is done one of our family or good friends,we often tend to forgive as soon as we can.but when things are so grave that get the judicial office involved then it doesn't simply depend on whether we are willing to forgive. sometimes people forgive other,expecting feel unfixed and relaxed and move on.a good choice.isn't it? have a nice day.

Yes if he is sincere in asking for forgiveness of what he did. It takes time but when we open our heart then time heals we just realize that its that easy to forgive then.

I didn't reach such an understanding yet. When someone hurt other, I hate them for doing so, Even if I have know that hating someone will just wasting my time and energy. I try not to hate them, but it can be helped. So I just let the time to decide and never allow myself to do some stupid things driven by hatred. I just hope that one day I can forgive what they've done and then forget it all. We must admit it...we were stupid being. We Know a better way to live but still...we chose the path that hurt others and yet...we hurt our self.