Archive for February, 2014

This Twisty Journey You Are On: A Helpful Forgiveness Hint

This journey we call forgiveness is not a straight path to the end with joy awaiting you.  Instead, if you are like the rest of us, you will start and stop and start again a number of times before you arrive, safe, at the journey’s end.  You will be making great progress and then have a dream about the person and wake up angry all over again.  You will think you have conquered only to meet again the person who hurts you, and there is the anger.  Or, it is a special holiday and you reflect back on your life hoping for peace and instead get a piece of the person’s own anger, and once again you are angry.  The forgiveness path is like this and so please be gentle with yourself.  Just start again with this person by examining the nature of your wounds now, assess what kind of work you need to do (more love? more merciful restraint?) and continue.

Robert

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I feel a lot of disgust with the people who have harmed me. How does this relation to contempt and unforgiveness

Contempt is a common reaction we have toward those who have hurt us deeply. Please remember that living with contempt hurts you more than it hurts the person who is the target of that contempt.  As you start a forgiveness process, please be gentle with yourself.  The process takes time.  In essence, you will work on seeing the humanity in the one who hurt you—-and in yourself.  Sometimes when we live with contempt we end up not liking ourselves.  You deserve to love yourself, given the pain that you have had to endure.  So, as you forgive another person and see his or her inherent (built-in) worth, you will find that you will begin to see that you, too, have such inherent worth.  I urge you to start on the forgiveness journey when you are ready.

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Hello, I am a ‘grown up’– I am married and my kids are grown, but I still struggle DAILY with anger and pain I feel toward a family member. This person, I acutally believe may be mentally ill (bipoalar) but no one else in the family will pursure this. There were many wonderful privildeges I had i my childhood, but I was afraid a lot, and this is STILL with me. Just the other night my husband slammed a cabinet in the kitchen -accidentally- and my insides went into alert mode. This person abused mostly their spouse -hitting and verbal abuse, this person also had affairs and also sexually abused their spose. I was hit, but I was aware of the things happening to this other person -the spouse. I remember the worst was waking up one night to bieng beaten. Everyday you don’t know what mood he will be in. I am sorry to post a specific like that, my question is that this person is still in my life and even though I do not feel threatened physically, I am sitll afraid and angry. I want to forgive, but my question is wondering if forgiving the past and forgiving th present different? I am not afraid of bieng hit, but I am sickened bieng aorund this person and repulsed by them. SICKENED and REPULSED! This dominates my life. Doominates. Any ideas for me I would like to hear it. I have thought about breaking ties with my family, but that feels wrong a spiteful. Sorry this is long!!!!

From your description, it sounds to me that this person’s physical abuse has ended.  If not, that is the first line of defense, to protect yourself and others by getting help from the appropriate social service agency in your area.  If the abuse is over, then I recommend that you start forgiving him for his past unjust behavior toward you first and then toward loved ones who were abused.  You can forgive him for hurt to others because this hurts you to see them emotionally and physically wounded.

As you forgive him for past injustices, your anger is likely to reduce. Right now you are classically conditioned to his past behavior.  You associate certain things now (a slammed cabinet door) with his past violence.  That link between loud noises and feeling unsafe is likely to ease for you as you forgive him.  Please keep in mind that it could take months of forgiveness work to accomplish your goal of beginning to feel safe.  This is ok.  A few months or more is better than living with years of resentment and the unsafe feeling that accompanies this.  I wish you the very best in your forgiveness journey.

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I clearly understand that forgiveness and reconciliation are not the same in major ways. However, if you forgive someone to the point that you really want to actively engage with the person, then, what would be the appropriate way or a wise way to seek reconciliation. Of course, the other person needs to acknowledge his wrongdoing and desire to change because reconciliation is a behavioral coming of both parties, but do you just patiently wait (in love) or do you actively initiate reconciliation? What would be the ways of reconciliation in the process of forgiveness?

I would recommend approaching the other person after first forgiving him or her so that you do not initiate the interaction with resentment in the heart.  Then I would carefully—carefully—explain that you are hurt.  In other words, you do not accuse, but explain how the person’s behavior has affected you inside. Psychologists call these “I-messages.”  An “I-message” is seen as less confrontational than a “You-message” in which you point out that person’s weaknesses.

Then I would try to see where the person is with regard to the seeking forgiveness process.  If the person denies all wrongdoing, then he or she is at the very beginning of that process.  If he or she acknowledges wrongdoing, this is a big step.

Then you can see the extent to which the person is willing to practice the “three Rs” of remorse (inner sorrow for having hurt you), repentance (wanting to change), and where appropriate recompense (making up to you for the damage done). Once you forgive and he or she practices the “three Rs,” then a true reconciliation is likely to occur.

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Mother of NFL Player Killed in Car Crash Forgives Driver

The Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas – Former Dallas Cowboys lineman Josh Brent was convicted last month of intoxication manslaughter for the December 2012 crash that killed his best friend and teammate Jerry Brown, Jr., who was a passenger in Brent’s car. Following the conviction, Brown’s mother testified that she forgave Brent and asked jurors for mercy in sentencing him.

“He is still responsible, but we can’t go on in life holding a grudge,” Stacey Jackson, Brent’s mother, testified. “We all make mistakes.”

Perhaps because of that testimony (Jackson was the last witness the jury heard), Brent avoided a possible 20-year prison sentence and instead was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 10 years of probation. He was also fined $10,000.

Jackson agreed with Brent’s attorney Kevin Brooks who told jurors that they couldn’t punish Brent more than he had already punished himself. “He still has to live with that,” Brooks said.

Jackson concluded her testimony by saying, “Forgiveness. I’m sure that’s what Jerry would have wanted.”

Read the entire story: “Josh Brent intoxication manslaughter trial.”

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