Someone recently made the statement that "forgiveness is the hardest thing anyone has to do."
Is it really? I don't think it is, because forgiveness is a two-way street. It STARTS with the offending person saying the three hardest words in the English language: "I WAS WRONG." Without that, they get no forgiveness.
We seem to think we have to forgive everyone no matter what, but that is not true. I think of forgiveness as a sort of contract. After the person admits he was wrong, he then agrees not to do the offending action again. But how often do we ever see this in play? I rarely see it, and I think part of the reason is because of the erroneous teaching that we must forgive everyone no matter what and regardless of whether or not they ever turn around and change their ways. So people don't bother admitting wrong doing. Some just expect that you will forgive them as a matter of course, and then invariably do the same thing again later on. If a person (sincerely) repents 70 times and asks forgiveness 70 times, then we should forgive him 70 times. But if there is no demonstration of repentance, it would be illogical to forgive the person because it would be tantamount to condoning the behavior and it would do neither party any good.
Now, having said that, one must also not be consumed with hatred or animosity as a result of what happened because like acid, it will eat him up on the inside. People have seriously injured me by their actions and never repented, but I don't let it eat me up. I move on with my life and don't give them any real estate in my head. But I will have nothing to do with those people again unless they admit their wrong doing as stated above, and then we will start over.
