Forgiveness will make everything better. Yes, forgiveness is a great healer. Holding a grudge or anger toward someone wastes energy and holding anger only hurts the person holding the anger. All of these things are true. This belief has held for most of my life and still does for most of my life.
What happens when the person you are forgiving, because you don’t think you really did anything wrong. I’m forgiving because I don’t want you to be angry with me, if I apologize for making you mad, I’m defusing the moment. But when does forgiving so many times begin to enable behavior. When do you stop forgiving? Is it when you have been hurt so bad that the magnitude of injury is so great?
I don’t know, I’ve talked with people who have been damaged by terrible crime, wrongly accused, or others who’ve lost loved ones to drunk drivers. They’ve explained that they had to forgive to go on with their lives. They had to let go of the anger to begin to feel joy again in their lives.
Can you forgive over and over the same behavior? When is enough enough? When does constantly forgiving enable bad behavior? If I forgive and the behavior doesn’t change do I keep forgiving? What if this behavior is hurting more than the forgiving is helping? I’m running out of forgiveness.
When forgiveness begins to enable bad behavior is it time to stop forgiving? When is enough enough and its time to move on? No answer, just more quesitons. Yes, I’m a little frustrated.
