Most often, forgiveness is considered an attribute of the weak.
But for me, forgiving someone who has mistreated or wronged us, requires the greatest strength. It says that even if you inflicted pain on me, I forgive you.
The power of forgiveness is solely ours to use. No one can take that power away from us.
When someone wrongs us, we hold resentment and anger towards that person. But do these feelings do any good to us? Do they make us feel better? They fill our minds with hatred and only poison it further. We get tempted to take revenge and make the other person suffer, just as we did. However, does hurting someone else, lessen our pain?
Inflicting suffering on someone else would not make us forget about our own.
Well, forgiveness can set us free. It liberates us. The hate we harbor against that person, we let it go. With forgiveness, we take the power from the other person to affect us anymore.
It’s a form of self-healing.
This reminds me of the conversation between Oskar and Amon from the movie Schindler’s List.
Oskar Schindler : Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't.
Amon Goeth: You think that's power?
Oskar Schindler: That's what the Emperor said. A man steals something, he's brought in before the Emperor, he throws himself down on the ground. He begs for his life, he knows he's going to die. And the Emperor... pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go.
Amon Goeth: I think you are drunk.
Oskar Schindler: That's power, Amon. That is power.
Forgiveness, is the greatest power you can possess.
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