The meaning of forgiveness is to cease the feeling of anger or bitterness towards a person or offense. It is said that in forgiving others, we are able to forgive ourselves. Basically, we must first forgive others for their offenses in order to be forgiven for our offenses. We cannot release the bonds of offense as long as we hold fast to negative feelings such as anger, criticism, hate, intolerance, towards others.

Forgiveness is something you do for yourself to break the bond of negativity that maintains the domination of energy between you and the offending person. Failure to forgive creates a negative wall of energy, impeding good from coming into our lives, and creates a bond that maintains a bond between you and the offender.

Everyone has someone that they need to forgive, whether it is that bully on the playground from 20 years ago whose words still haunt you or that friend who betrayed you or even the injustices in our society. If you feel hurt, anger, hurt, or resentment toward someone, you need to forgive them. When you read this, the first person that comes to mind, is where you should begin. Once you forgive them in your mind, the negative energy that has kept you locked in resentment, anger, or hurt is immediately released. Breaking this negative bond also affects the other person as well, whether directly or indirectly.

I truly believe that when you forgive the other person, they also experience the results of the negative bond being defeated and energy being freed in a positive way. Their hearts and attitudes may soften in ways we can never understand making them more positive, amiable or loving.

After you forgive all that have hurt you, don’t forget to forgive yourself. You deserve to feel all the love, pleasure, and happiness your life has to offer.

10 Wisdom Wednesday Quotes: Forgiveness

1. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”― Oscar Wilde
2. “Forgiveness is the exact opposite of vengeance, which acts in the form of re-enacting against an original trespassing whereby far from putting an end to the consequences of the first misdeed, everybody remains bound to the process, permitting the chain reaction contained in every action to take its unhindered course.”—Hannah Arendt
3. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”― Mahatma Gandhi
4. “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”― C.S. Lewis
5. “Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.”― John F. Kennedy
6. “To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.”― Confucius
7. “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”― Alexander Pope
8. “Keep in mind, hurting people often hurt other people as a result of their own pain. If somebody is rude and inconsiderate, you can almost be certain that they have some unresolved issues inside. They have some major problems, anger, resentment, or some heartache they are trying to cope with or overcome. The last thing they need is for you to make matters worse by responding angrily.”― Joel Osteen
9. “Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”― Martin Luther King Jr.
10. “Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.”—Dag Hammarskjold