We’ve all heard the adage, fake it ’til you make it. But what about faking it until we feel it? Doing something even when we don’t feel like it until we actually do feel like doing it. It’s like exercise. If you need energy, you need to exercise. But the last thing you want to do when you’re tired and worn out is move, right? However, if you exercise anyway, in essence, faking the desire to move, soon enough you will feel energized and want to move more.
Did you know this same action can be done with forgiveness? That you can forgive someone even when the pain is still raw, the betrayal still burns, the wounds are unhealed. You can do it, because forgiveness is a choice.
You can say, “I choose to forgive this person for this wrong” even when you don’t want to forgive them. Even when they aren’t—and may never be—sorry for what they did. Because forgiving them doesn’t release them from the wrong. It’s not a free pass or a sweeping under the rug of their wrongdoing. It doesn’t mean you have to re-establish the relationship. What forgiveness is, is an act of freedom for you. It looses you from the situation, from the pain, from the awful tie to the person and their words or actions.
It’s choosing peace over bitterness.
Healing over wounding.
Life over death.
And the lovely thing is, you can choose to forgive over and over and one day you will feel like freely and wholeheartedly forgiving the person for their wrong. And when that day comes, forgiveness, like exercise will be something you want to do.
I’m Felicia Ferguson; thanks for listening to Christian Mix 106.