forgiveness | a letter

we've all been hurt by someone before, whether it was a significant other, a bully, a family member, a friend, whoever. a lot of times, hurt turns into hate or apathy, but i am not someone who wants any hate or apathy or negative vibes in my life.
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dear anyone who's ever hurt me,

i forgive you. i forgive anything that you could have said or done to hurt me. no matter how bad, no matter how much it hurt, no matter how much it has changed my life. the hurt may have almost killed me, but forgiveness is what has made me stronger.

i know that some people think i'm stupid or "too nice" for trying to truly forgive the people that hurt me but that's not it. i forgive people, not bc i'm "too nice" (though i might be) or bc i'm non-confrontational (also true) but bc i need it. & sometimes, bc THEY need it. not everyone forgives themselves for the things that they do.

ofc, my faith has a lot to do w this. i believe that God forgives us for all of the horrible things that we do & he still loves us unconditionally. forgiveness is such a blessing & i know that God wants us to share that blessing w others. if i hurt someone, i know that i would want forgiveness so why don't i start the trend & forgive others first? isn't the golden rule something like "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"?

that's what i try to do, i try to give others the forgiveness that i know i would want. what's the use in holding a grudge against someone for forever? it might possibly hurt them, if they care, but it would hurt me too. i would be holding onto some kind of hate & it would just eat at me. i don't want that. i don't want to hate anyone. i don't want to hold grudges. getting caught up in all of that isn't good for me, you know this, i know this, everyone knows this.

so let's stop dwelling on the pain of the past. let's start over, let's continue wherever we stopped off, or whatever! let's just let forgiveness do it's thing & make our lives better. i forgive you, i care about you, i love you.