Spiritual Development

We don’t always choose the people we love. By dint of circumstance and the various situations we find ourselves in, our lives become populated with people and relationships that have a huge impact on us, for good or for ill. People such as our parents, siblings, and relatives who form part of our extended family are a given for many of us, and they are in our lives before we are even able to make decisions about such things. Our loved ones aren’t perfect people, whether they just happened to be in our lives at the right place and time or because we chose to make them part of our lives. They make mistakes, whether these are errors in judgment, the result of poor communication, the inability to see someone else’s perspective, or sometimes through doing and saying hurtful things deliberately. When mistakes happen, they threaten the relationship and its ongoing existence. One of the main ways to deal with relational hurt is to forgive the person who hurt you. Forgiveness isn’t always easy, not only from the perspective of understanding what you’re doing when you’re forgiving someone but also from the experience of offering forgiveness itself. This article will provide some pointers for how to forgive a loved one who has hurt you. The place of forgiveness in relationships In all relationships, there comes a time when harm is caused, inadvertently or otherwise. Your loved one might not show up when you were relying on them to babysit. They might let slip to someone else something that was said in confidence. They might break a promise to pursue their rehab and treatment. They might lie, and so break your trust. They might say something in public that humiliates you. There are many ways for people to hurt each [...]