Last week, I wrote about why people do the things that they do and why they are afraid to take risks. I ended by asking, “What is holding you back?” This week, I’m going to tackle one of the biggest problems I think we face and that few want to talk about.
Many people struggle for years with things they hold inside. They built up walls to hide the hurt and to protect themselves from ever experiencing that again. Little do they understand that the walls they are building only hold the hurt in.
A son feels resentment for the parents who sell the ranch that he thought he would inherit. A father feels like a failure when his kids spend most of their mid-life in and out of treatment facilities for habits they can’t shake. A daughter feels shame when she ends up pregnant in high school. A wife feels abandoned when the husband spends all his time working on the ranch and never taking a day off.
Maybe this isn’t your situation, but we all have hurts that we feel we can’t face. It’s just easier to not talk about them… we think. However, that’s exactly what we need to do!
I have felt much anger these past two weeks over the assassination of Charlie Kirk. It was borderline debilitating. I couldn’t get past it. I demanded an answer! I realize now, I may never get the answers I want.
Erika Kirk’s eulogy of her husband this past Sunday helped me to heal. On live TV, she forgave the gunman who killed her husband. I thought, if she can forgive something so horrible as that, maybe there is hope for me. Maybe I can forgive family members for hurts they have caused me. Maybe I can begin to reconcile relationships that I thought were lost.
Carrying around the weight of judgements is a tremendous burden. Unforgiveness can cause all kinds of problems from sickness to depression. Forgiving others promotes emotional health and personal freedom. Are your judgements holding you back? Is there someone you need to forgive?
Quote Worth Re-Quoting
“Forgiveness does not change the past – but it does change the future.” ~ Paul Boose