How do you forgive your loved one who has hurt you?

Philippines
July 8, 2011 6:15am CST
We love, we get hurt. It's a normal thing in any relationship. May it be your relationship with your family, friends, boy friend/girl friend or spouse. I don't think perfect relationships exist. I think that all relationships, in any way, go through hard times and at some point they get hurt. A lot. But how do you really forgive that person who you really love, and who has hurt you? What if your loved one does something terrible that even if you love him/her so much, you can't easily forget and forgive? I know it's a cliche to hear people say that "I love him/her so it's ok that I'm hurt, I still love him/her". Yes, we get the point. We forgive them because we love them. But how? How can we do that when emotions take over? How can we do that when our hearts are already broken? Has anyone of you experienced this? Has anyone of you got heart broken so bad that you don't know how to fix it anymore? Share your thoughts. There is, of course, no right or wrong answers. :)
4 people like this
20 responses
@febrigas (362)
• Indonesia
9 Jul 11
Forgiveness is far more difficult than apologize. Need the wisdom to do so. But forgive others will make our hearts feel more comfortable. The following are tips to forgive, from source I have ever read: - Cultivate in ourselves that to forgive is very noble. - Start by forgiving ourselves. - Remember that God is omniscient and infinite justice despite our feelings hurt, we should still be able to forgive. - God was about to forgive his people who truly repent to. God already guarantee our good, as long as we sincerely do. - Reflection yourself, we want to sincerely forgiven. So you do the same in others. - Keep the heart of envy. - Sincerely forgive is not really difficult, as long as we're going to do it. - Forgiveness is something beautiful. - Forgiveness makes us human beings who have a great soul and heart. - Expand our knowledge of goodness. - Forgiveness is healthy. Happy MyLotting to All.. :D
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
9 Jul 11
hi and to err is human but to forgive is divine also hatred does not hurt the hated one, it 'only hurts you and weighs you down with remorse to forgive that hated one is to lift the weight 'of the world from your shoulders.
@abhi_bangal (5518)
• Ahmednagar, India
8 Jul 11
I agree with you as why no perfect relationship exists. The reason is no human is perfect and secondly, it is not possible to behave according to everyone's liking. Forgiving your family members is one thing if one gets hurt. But the same feelings to not exist with one's boyfriend or girlfriend. When it comes to forgiving the one whom you love, comes naturally as the feelings are also natural. If there is falsehood in your love, you cannot wholeheartedly forgive any person. Just saying is not okay, I think. It is just showing the formality to someone else at face value.
1 person likes this
• Ahmednagar, India
8 Jul 11
The below response has been wrongly posted again as the page did not refresh properly so I did it manually. Apologies for the same.
1 person likes this
@abhi_bangal (5518)
• Ahmednagar, India
8 Jul 11
I agree with you as why no perfect relationship exists. The reason is no human is perfect and secondly, it is not possible to behave according to everyone's liking. Forgiving your family members is one thing if one gets hurt. But the same feelings to not exist with one's boyfriend or girlfriend. When it comes to forgiving the one whom you love, comes naturally as the feelings are also natural. If there is falsehood in your love, you cannot wholeheartedly forgive any person. Just saying is not okay, I think. It is just showing the formality to someone else at face value.
1 person likes this
@rappeter13 (8608)
• Romania
8 Jul 11
This is a question of what type of person you are and how easy can you forgive and the type of act the other has done against you. You must be rational, even if the emotions are strong, you need to make a balance of the good things and emotions you have received from the other and the bad things and emotions the other one has caused you. Then you will see if you can forgive and forget or not. In my opinion it is easier to forgive than to forget, many times it is better not to forget.
• Romania
9 Jul 11
I have had such experiences, but I am a person who doesn't take things personally too much, because it is easier to go through negative feelings and experiences. If you try to detach yourself a bit and let things go, then it will be easier.
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
Have you got any experience on being hurt so badly and forgiving them?
• Philippines
8 Jul 11
talking about true love entails both hurt and forgiveness. you cannot always admit that you love a person and at the same time holding grudge in your heart. there is always time to forgive and eventually to forget. loving a person is all about accepting who he is, filling up his weakness out of your strength.
1 person likes this
@ifta11 (22)
9 Jul 11
love I don't know how to tackle this big emotional thing.love is a feeling which can I guess cures everything .In fact their are many dieases which have no cure other than love.love is a solution to every thing.it has big super powers in it which becomes the solution of your every problem. when you know love is really very beautiful then hoe it is that you cant forgive the one whom you love. I agree there are few things which hurt you but there is a person without whom you cant live you cant do any thing of course that persons presence is more meaningful to you then his mistake.
1 person likes this
@maean_19 (4655)
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
I was recently hurt by someone whom I have loved for a year. It is painful for me because we have shared a lot and thought he could be my last. Unfortunately, like other relationships, it has to end and chose to stop loving him to end the pain. Forgiving can be hard as well as forgetting. However, I have to do those to free myself from nurturing the pain. It is best to free myself from being bitter and not to plant more pain. Forgiving can be easy when you want to. Don't hold on, don't expect anything. Keep yourself forward and forget the past. Don't regret that it happened, instead learn from it. Things happen for a reason because that way we have to be mature enough when the situation comes.
@babyEj (1522)
• Philippines
8 Jul 11
Good memories can at least revive the love you had with that person. Think of the good memories you shared with him , think of the imperfectness you contributed to work on the LOVE you had shared with him and lastly move on because you have to. I think these will make up ones mind to forgive someone you've hurt.
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
That's what I think too. I try to think of all the good memories because they outweigh the bad ones. But then comes again a petty fight and all the bad memories revive.
@sanjay91422 (2725)
• India
8 Jul 11
It is not always easy to forget the hurt in the relationship with your most loved ones. They are the people whom you love the most but also you get hurt most by those people only. A father loves his children and can get hurt easily if the children says something wrong. Same way a mother can get hurt. Your girlfriend, your boy friend, your close friends these are the people whom anyone loves the most. Sometime you can forgive them but you will remember the hurt for sure.
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
It really is not easy to forget. Forgiving is one thing, but forgetting what has happened certainly is a difficult thing to do. Unless you get amnesia. But even if that's the case, the heart still knows the pain it has been through.
@thatgirl13 (7294)
• South Korea
8 Jul 11
I don't need a really huge effort to forgive someone coz I have this nature of forgiving people with time. I mean the anger just goes away and sometimes I forget I was angered/hurt by someone. But yes there is someone I don't know how I'll be able to forgive. He was my first love and we had a really good thing going on. But sadly we broke up. He was my first and only love to date. I know I don't want anything from him anymore but I don't think I can forgive him.
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
It's really hard to forgive even if he/she is already in your past.
• United States
8 Jul 11
Love is not always easy.Even the best relationships can let you downa nd hurt you.Talk to the person and give them some time to try to change what they have done.After you talk to them and you still feel like you can't forgive them well maybe its best to know when to walk away.Sometimes love is all about knowing when to let go.I have forgiven a lot of loved ones.Sometimes its hard but worth it in teh end.
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
I have forgiven a lot of my loved ones, too. And you're right, sometimes it's all worth it. We just have to keep the faith.
@bouncybug (614)
• South Africa
8 Jul 11
Hi pinkpiglet! I know exactly what you are talking about. I was really badly hurt by my boyfriend and I think it is a really difficult thing to get through. Yes, you may the love the person but that doesn't mean that its always easy to forgive and most importantly, to forget. I guess the most important thing is to judge whether the person is worth it - if you really believe that your relationship is worth saving then I think that you should put as much effort as you can into trying to make it work and forgiving the person. After that, I guess all there is is time. You have to at least give it a shot, if you find later that you can't really forgive then so be it, but at least you will have known that you tried! Over time I think you can learn to forgive anyone for almost anything if they are really remorseful.
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
I have tried, and still trying. I guess I can already forgive, but no doubt there will be an eternal scar. And that hurts the most.
• Philippines
30 Jul 11
Through prayers i forgave my loved one who hurted me so much,When I know really that we have a God,I learned to forgave them.I am only human that can give forgiveness for them,It's my part as a christian.If you will forgive those who hurted you,God will be happy and will guide you all the way of your life!
• Philippines
30 Jul 11
Hi pinkpiglet! I can relate with this topic. It's been hard for me to forgive people, no matter how big or small is the fault. I don't easily forgive and forget, and I hold grudges. When the person approaches me to say sorry, I may not easily accept the apology, but as we talk to each other about positive things in life, reconciliation comes into the picture and we're okay once again. :)
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
9 Jul 11
hi pinkpiglet it takes time and most of all communication as so many times we get hurt because we misunderstood or our mate misunderstood 'and stewed and stewed till he or she just blew up. with my husband I found that we could always take time out and decide to solve whatever it 'w as that one of us was really angry about. With me I tended when first married to think my husband if he loved me should know instinctively if I was up set over something but he was not a mind reader. so I would go off and s ulk and get so mad that when he again asked mw what was wrong I would blow my top and scream like once," well damn you know,You always leave the bad word toilet seat up and I went in the dark and I i sat down on the cold porcleain. bad word bad work how come you cannot put it down" He began laughing and soon I was laughing too as he promised he would not forget any more. Oh sure we had small spat but I dont think we ever had something that hurt us so bad we co uld not get over it easily. I do not mean we were perfect b ut for one thing we were both mature when we married and we both loved each other unconditionally which solves a lot of problems as so many couples are always wanting to change the other person completely and that causes some really bad ugly fights that is one how we had as we all our married life accepted and loved each other flaws and good points. he was terrible at paying bills and balancing check books I was good so I took over that, I was not a good vacuumer so he did that. we helped each other and we had patience with each other so really neither of us ever did anything that terrible or I would have remembered it. perhaps the fact that we were both church goers and Christians and tried to practice that daily. also we liked each other too so were best friends.
@jaiho2009 (39141)
• Philippines
8 Jul 11
We forgive the person we love for all the mistake he/she has done because we love him/her. So,when that love fades...that will give us freedom to let go of that person. I loved someone so much,and let him go after forgiving me _nth time for cheating me. Then one day i realized,I can't go on forgiving and accepting him again and again. And that sets me free and made me happier now. To love is sweet...but freedom is sweeter and will give us space to breath and live.
@EdnaReyes (2622)
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
I was hurt before by my husband lying about a past girl relationship / Although he met the girl way ahead of me, I felt I was betrayed because he did not mention about her and this made me think he's keeping secrets with me which I found out is true. The girl is still pursuing him then during our first year of marriage and to shield me from harm, he quietly got her out of his life permanently. I should be thankful but I was really hurt because he lied and kept secrets.I got over the hurt when I finally forget about it. It was the time I was bale to forgive him and my hurt was mended. I think when you got over the experience, it is the only time you can forget and forgive. I can now talk about it and I am sure it is totally out of my system!My heart is not broken anymore!
@nikramos (698)
• Philippines
9 Jul 11
when you feel hurt, dont speak with the person who's hurt you. you will end up both feeling hurt as there are greater chances of you blurting out every hurtful word you can ever imagine of. it is during these breaks in a relationship when you realize no matter what caused the hurt, you still want to be with that person or be with your family or whoever it is. i came to a point when i had to ask myself, why after all the hurt i had i still stand by this relationship and i still stay with this person? basically nothing in it is making me happy anymore. i ran out of reasons to prove it is worth sacrificing. it is then you realize that you dont love the person just because he is good, just because he has a great personality, or that because he makes you smile. i thought yeah i love him, and i mean all of him, regardless,whatever. in my case, i dont believe in loving based on standards. i love because i felt it. and until im feeling it, i will forgive as long as i can. not that im afraid to let go of someone i love dearly but because thats how it really feels.
@jayadevi (17)
• India
8 Jul 11
yes i was experienced like this problems in my life from my husband & my daughter also.but at the same time i love them truely.so i giveup many times for thier.some times i pray god to give me peace and solve my problem with out hurting others. we r all crossing this moments with very patient & kindful mind.other then we lose all happiness from our life.
@meemii (28)
• United States
9 Jul 11
Once I was hurt terribly by my boyfriend who betrayed me in the worst way. He had a secret baby behind my back that I never knew about. I was hurt and broke it off immmediately and wanted nothing more to do with him. After some time passed, we began talking as friends and I found that it was ok to do this because I wasn't truly invested in him or the relationship. Deep down I think I always knew that he was not the best person for me, and I eventually forgave him. We did not get back together and that was for the best. We both moved on. I think if I was truly in deep love with him I would not have been able to forgive him. Everybody has to decide for themself how much you'll tolerate from someone who hurts you. Other factors to consider are how long you've had the relationship, how much you've invested, and whether or not you want that person in or out of your life. I hope this helps in some small way.