Staying here, blaming them, and forever defining your life by what they did will only increase the pain. Worse, it will keep projecting out onto others. The more our pain consumes us, the more it will control us. And sadly, it's those who least deserve to be hurt whom our unresolved pain will hurt the most.

Forgiveness is the weapon. Our choices moving forward are the battlefield. Moving on is the journey.

I forgive this person for how their actions back then are still impacting me now. And whatever my feelings don't yet allow for, the blood of Jesus will surely cover.

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive."1

Forgiveness releases to the Lord your need for them to be punished or corrected, giving it to the only One who can do this with right measures of justice and mercy.

I only needed to bring my willingness to forgive, not the fullness of all my restored feelings.

God made us For Giving. God made you For Giving. God made me For Giving.

What happened yesterday can't be changed, but it can be forgiven. That's your miracle in the mess.

Another act of forgiveness means even more healing and clarity. Another intentional brushstroke of beauty slowly replacing the darkness with hues of healing light.

In the evening of life we shall be judged on love, and not one of us is going to come off very well, and were it not for my absolute faith in the loving forgiveness of my Lord I could not call on him to come.

And who understands? Not me, because if I did I would forgive it all.

Forgiveness is not saying it didn't matter; it is not saying we simply choose to overlook the offense. Forgiveness is saying the cross is enough—we require no further payment than Jesus paid. Forgiveness is releasing the person to God for him to deal with.