Forgiveness

From FOCUS ON THE FAMILY, Today, 28-Apr-2008 edition

 

Forgiveness

By Dr James Dobson

 

Forgive and forget — it’s a lot easier to say than to do. When our

spouses do something to wound us deeply, can we ever truly

forgive them? And if we do forgive them, can we ever forget

the pain they’ve caused us?

 

I read an almost unbelievable newspaper article the other day

about a married couple both in their late 70s. The wife, who was

wheelchair-bound, was charged for badly beating her husband

in the head with her bedpan.

 

And the reason she gave? She said she had committed adultery

in the 1940’s in the earliest years of their marriage.

 

She testified that her husband had constantly taunted her

about her indiscretion until some 50 years later, she could

take it no longer.

 

Maybe her husband had told her at one time that he forgave her

and that he didn’t want to leave her, but though he said the words,

it’s obvious that there was no real forgiveness.

 

Dr Archibald Hart once said: “Forgiveness is giving up my right

to hurt you for hurting me. I think that’s one of the most profound

definitions of forgiveness I’ve ever heard. It’s only when we’ve

truly given up the right to retaliate, that we’ve truly forgiven.