Learning to “Let Go”

Learning to “let go” is a popular topic in many self-help and spiritual writings today.  To me, “letting go” is called forgiveness.  We have people whom we need to forgive, circumstances that are forgivable, and actions that wronged us which we can move on from.

Have you ever met a person that held a grudge who was happy?  Neither have I and I don’t want that to become me. Matthew 5:7 states, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”  The more I have learned to forgive, the easier it has been to move on.  Even things that happened 20 years ago or in elementary school or as a child… Forgive.  Life gets happier that way.

Now i’m not going to say it’s easy… some things are work.  It’s not “difficult,” but it is work.  You have something right now that you don’t htink you could ever forgive the other person for.  Just keep working at it, you’ll get there.  The blessings come from doing the work.  Little by little you’ll feel better about it all as the work gets done.  Then, one day, you’ll realize, the work is complete.  On that day, you’ll just forgive.  Getting through the “big one” makes all the other stuff easier to.  A mentor of mine once said that strong people tackle the big obstacles first.

Once the forgiveness has happened in your heart, tell that other person such.  Chances are they are fretting over what was done.  By finding your peace and expressing it can help another find their peace also.  Even if it doesn’t or they don’t care, you’ll find how uplifting it is for you and your life.  You’ll feel the weight be lifted off your shoulders.  They’ll get there eventually, and know full well that you forgave them and it will help them at that time.  Your blessings of forgiveness are multiplied.

Forgiveness has to do with love.  Knowing that we have wronged others in our time, do we ourselves want forgiveness from them.  The words “Love one another as I have loved you” from John 15:12 ring true.  The golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto yourself” (Matthew 7:12)  are all related.  Finding more ways to forgive is akin to finding more ways to love.