Belinda's brain

- To my daughter, whom I'm frustrated with.

How can we become saints if we refuse to forgive even the smallest infractions against us? Clinging to our pain while saying, "It's not fair," does not justify our refusal to forgive, because with forgiveness we have no "rights".

  Christ commands us to forgive and without being asked to forgive first and without a conditional apology or a sign of remorse from our offenders. Don't even waste the priests time in the confessional by expecting forgiveness for yourself, when you refuse to extend it to others.

When we forgive, we let things go and try to forget about the past sins against us and we don't rehash hurtful scenarios in our mind, in essence- picking at our emotional scabs. When we forgive and forget, we allow Christ to step in to heal our wounds.

When you forgive someone, it doesn't negate any sort of justice from God. Our  God of the ten commandments will still demand justice and an accounting from each and every one of us but for now, while we are living, we step back and let God have our hurt and anger and we  do the things which we've been called to do. In other words, you go to confession and work on making yourself a better person and let God work on your offenders.

The business of forgiveness is a serious matter, it's one of the things your eternal life will be judged upon.

Ephesians 4:32

 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.

Matthew 6:14-15

 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. {15} "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.