Thursday, May 17, 2012

Forgiveness with boundries

One of the things that I love about forgiveness is that it never excuses a behavior or tolerates a bad behavior.  It says that something hurtful happened but somehow I want to work through that issue. I might reconcile with you or I might not. Forgiveness doesn't demand reconciliation. It sets the stage for it, if you will, but it doesn’t require it. I can forgive but still set boundaries.  Forgiveness has within it boundaries that are sufficient to protect ourselves from further insults from those who have hurt us. Those boundaries are the distance we need so we can continue to love those who have hurt us. Forgiveness does not take the hurt or anger away. It does not change what is right or wrong. It does not mean we have to agree. Forgiveness allows us to communicate our love from the distance where we feel safe. 

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