To err is human, to forgive, divine

Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die

~Buddha~

I was on facebook recently and saw this comment "Broken trust and anger will close a heart until honesty and love is once again found".  I believe there's a piece missing in that statement.  I'm talking about forgiveness.  Now, here are my thoughts on broken trust, anger, honesty, love and forgiveness:

Anger is a temporary emotion that, left alone, will subside.  It takes effort to hold onto anger.  It steals our happy moments and replaces them with negative emotions like resentment.  Anger, resentment, not forgiving are all cancers that eat away at our happiness one nibble at a time.  No one stays angry forever unless they try.  Situations change.  Opinions and circumstances change.  People change.  If you're still angry about something that happened a long time ago, you need to ask yourself why and who, really, is being hurt by that anger. 

It's true the spoken word can't be unsaid or the broken trust unbroken but both can be forgiven and the broken trust can be mended  Forgiving doesn't mean forgetting nor does it mean that trust is automatically regained.  It simply means that you're not going to let one (or even a hundred and one) incident affect your life, steal your happiness or harden your heart.  Forgiveness is not only healing, it's also freeing.  It frees you of the shackles of anger and resentment and allows you to concentrate your energies on the positive.

So, what about the love and honesty?  I'm not sure where they fit in, to be truthful.  I think it's hard to be honest with yourself if you're holding on to anger.  Love?  I don't know anyone who hasn't ever been angry at someone they love (or had someone who loved them, be angry at them) but I think it's absolutely impossible to hold onto anger if you truly love someone.

Sometimes there are people in our lives who break our trust over and over again or hurt us on a regular basis.  I know that's been true for me at different times in my life.  My answer to that is to forgive those people so I can heal and then remove them from my life.  Like I said earlier, forgiveness doesn't mean acceptance.  Forgive, let it go and then move on.

As for me, I tend to forgive everyone for everything - it may be in my own time, but it always happens.  I don't do it for those who hurt me.  I do it for myself because I matter.  Besides, we will all stand before God one day and want to be forgiven.  How can we ask for and expect to receive that which we refuse to give?  Think about it.