Forgive and Forget

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:13

When we forgive as God forgives, we recognize that the person is not perfect and will fail us. And we are promising we will not treat the offender in the way that we have a human right to, considering their offense. When the hurt from the offense washes over us and the memory of the hurt fills us with a sense of betrayal and rage, our natural instinct is to get back at the offender. If we have forgiven, we must at that point say, \"Yes, this happened and I was devastated by it. But I have chosen to forgive. Therefore, I CHOOSE to respond in a way that does not hurt the other person - that does not treat them in a way he or she deserves.\"

This kind of forgiveness is not a one time act that magically transforms a shattered heart. When the hurt is deep and life shattering, it takes a lifetime of godly choices to learn how to interact with the forgiven offender.

With a lot of practice in this kind of \"forgetting\", in time, the hurt diminishes. This is not easy in the short term but the alternative is to become a bitter, old man in the long term. Obedience is tough in the short term but bears great fruit in the long term. Someone has called this kind of living “a long obedience in the same direction.\"

If someone says to you, \"Don't think of the job\" \"Don't think
of the job\" \"Don't think of the job,\" no matter how
hard you try, you probably can't stop visualizing or thinking
about the job.

The same thing happens when you try to \"forget\" a negative situation
that has an emotional charge to it. No matter how hard you try, you
just can't seem to do it. You think you've forgotten but it's come
back up in other ways.

Forgiving (letting go) is one thing but forgetting is another. Memory can be a useful tool for learning for our cognitive system. An experience is an imprint which forms what we are.

Oh so how true!! It doesn't take proof either to know this. No matter who long a subject is thought to be forgotten somehwere along the line something sparks that memory back to life whether we wish it or not. Yet there is no answer as to how to stop it from happening but to quickly respond to it and immediately let go of it and place it back int he archives of our brains and move on.... Wish there was away to just take it away....