Forgiving Yourself

As difficult as it is sometimes to forgive others, I find it even more difficult to forgive myself. After all, we know everything that we have done and we can't hide from it. We are unable to deceive ourselves as to what we have done.

All of our past mistakes stay with us. Finding a way to forgive yourself is an important part of moving forward from those mistakes.

How can we truly forgive others if we can't forgive the person we spend the most time with? That recurrent lesson of the Bible, to treat others' as we want to be treated, means that we have to forgive ourselves.

We are our own worst critics. No one judges us as harshly as we judge ourselves.

I know for me, forgiving myself for some things took some time. I tend to beat myself up a little longer than I should. My mistakes are like a home movie replaying itself from time to time.

Of late, I am learning to look at my mistakes with a students eye. I am taking away valuable lessons from what I have done in the past. I am experiencing them in an emotionally neutral state. Instead of feeling bad about them and having intense feelings, I am trying to look at them from a critical standpoint and just see what is. "It is what it is" probably sums up best how I now view things.

When I can look at things without the overwhelming emotions and without labeling myself as a bad person, then I can see what I did wrong, how I could have handled it, how do I avoid that in the future.

Remember, you are not what you do or the mistakes you make. Those things do not encompass all that is you.

Acknowledge it, repent, apologize, learn something; but don't become the mistakes you make. Forgive yourself, promise yourself to do better and when you make another mistake, forgive yourself again. Just as you are to continue to forgive others, do so for yourself.

It is easier said than done. I can't count the number of times I have continued to call myself stupid or said how terrible I was or refused to let myself have forgiveness for something. End the negative self-talk; love yourself as others do, forgive yourself as others do and accept the forgiveness that God wants you to have.I don't think there is scripture that specifically talks about forgiving oneself, but I know God forgives us. It follows then that if we are to strive to be Christ-like, then we should also be forgiving, to ourselves as well as others.

Resources

Day 16 - Achieving Forgiveness