Forgiveness: The Greatest Gift You

Forgiveness

The Greatest Gift You Can Give Yourself

By Jo Ann Rotermund

Jo Ann Rotermund, author, speaker, and forgiveness coach, spent her life being a victim until 2001, when her study of forgiveness helped heal her past and bring personal power, freedom, and joy into everything she does. Now retired from a 30 year career in social research and married 54 years, Jo Ann, who is absolutely passionate about forgiveness, has committed the rest of her life to inspiring others to make forgiveness a natural way of living, healing themselves and their world in the process. Her book, THE FORGIVENESS HABIT: an Action Plan for Healing Ourselves and Our Planet, with a foreword by Desmond Tutu, provides all you need to know to start making forgiveness a natural part of your life. The book is available thru Amazon and thru Jo Ann Rotermund at www.theforgivenesshabit.org

Forgiveness sets you free. That is one of the most valuable statements I can make about forgiveness. Forgiveness as a habit lets you love unconditionally, and live life fully and joyfully. Who would not want that?

Forgiveness is for you. It sets you free to live a great life and become the person you are meant to be. You probably have heard it said that forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. I say that when you fully understand forgiveness you will know that it is the greatest gift you can give yourself

Forgiveness

Also, know that you did not come across this article on forgiveness and start reading it just by accident. There are no accidents in this universe. Your action of finding this magazine and choosing to read this article is actually your soul guiding you in your life. Trust, and read on. Whatever it is you are looking, longing, or wishing for, this article, and the ones to follow it, has an answer for you—precisely because it is about forgiveness. As Neale Donald Walsch says, “Forgiveness can change everything.”

Forgiveness is the perfect starting place for any new beginning in your life. Without it, your past regrets, resentments, and upsets will get in your way and either slow you down or, in most cases, stop you completely, leaving you with excuses rather than fulfillment. However, the forgiveness I am talking about is probably not the forgiveness that you know about and think about So, let me clarify some things about forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not:

A sign of weakness, ignorance, or low self-esteem; Forgetting the past and putting yourself at risk again; Repressing your anger and pretending you haven't been hurt; Refusing to hold people accountable for their behavior.

Forgiveness is:

Something you do for yourself, not for the perpetrator; The only way to move on from a deep wrong or injustice; The greatest healer of all and the ultimate preventive medicine; An act of the heart that heals you and the world; A way of being in life, like a habit.

”It is the greatest step a human being can take. It is the step of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all of us love poorly. We do not even know what we are doing when we hurt others. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour—unceasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family. ” Quote by Henri Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing.

True forgiveness is not an action after the fact. It is an attitude with which you enter each moment Quote by Rev. David Ridge, Living Water Unity Church, Westminster, CO