I come from a culture which highly honors parents. One of my parents was so mean to me. I am thinking about forgiving, but it seems disrespectful. After all, if I forgive, I am saying that my parent did wrong and that is disrespectful in my culture. Do you have any suggestions for me?

When you forgive, you do not disrespect the one you are forgiving. On the contrary, you begin to see the other as having intrinsic (built-in) worth. As you forgive, you see that you can respect the person-as-person, not because of what was done, but in spite of this. Try to keep a distinction in mind between actions which can be wrong and persons who still can be respected in spite of the actions.

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