Six Reasons Why Forgiveness is Good for You

No one is perfect. Therefore as long as we live we will be offended by as many people as possible. The most natural thing is to try retaliating, paying back the person in his/her own coin. But it is best not to. Instead we should try forgiveness. There are more benefits in forgiveness to the forgiver than the forgiven. Here are a few reasons for forgiveness.

Forgiveness shows strength of character.

It is those who are strong who can resist the urge to revenge. Revenge is easier than forgiveness, so whenever you forgive someone who offends you knowingly or unknowingly, you show the person how strong you are in character. It means you are in control of what you do, you think about it fully and choose the right option.

Forgiveness is the right “payback”

When someone offends you even willingly, and you forgive you “pay him back”. The person offends you to let you react in a certain way. That person is happy to see you react in that way. But if you forgive (and you must let the person know it) you stun him/her in the face. It will pain such a person to see that you do not react the way he/she has planned. One famous quote goes like this: “The only way to show your enemy you are better than him is to forgive him”.

Forgiveness frees you

If you harbour pain in you it will lead to certain diseases like hypertension. That is what unforgiveness does. Once you see the person, you start thinking about how to hurt him. Such thoughts put extra stress on your heart. Then the pain continues because most of the time you are not in the position to do what you would have liked to do. Forgiving the person will free you from such thoughts.

Unforgiveness blocks your chances of learning from whatever wrong you suffered.

Every experience we go through holds some lesson for us. Our ability to discover such lesson will help us live better lives tomorrow, avoiding worst things that might come. If we choose to forgive, we get the chance to analyse the situation critically because we are able to ask the right questions. Thoughts of revenge and unforgiveness cloud these questions.

We make room for others to forgive us.

As said earlier, no one is perfect. You will also one day be the offender. Then you will need to be forgiven. Life is such that you reap what you sow. If you sow revenge you reap revenge in abundance. They way you forgive others will make others forgive you when you become the offender. It might not be exactly those you offended but others you never knew.

You might end up suffering more offence.

Life is not at times fair. While trying to revenge, the offender gets the chance again to inflict more on you. You end up loosing twice. Remember the saying first fool is not a fool.

Forgiveness will make the world peaceful for all. To err is human; to forgive divine. Let’s choose the divine way of life and forgive.