Last week, I listened to a friend discuss forgiveness. He stressed how important it is to always be willing to forgive. I was so moved by his comments that I even wrote a business post on the subject!
One thing my friend said that got me to really think, was that first, we need to forgive ourselves.
It’s so easy to beat ourselves up for the mistakes we have made. I do it – do you do it too! Why? Do we really believe we are ‘sinners’, unworthy of forgiveness? Or are we reverting back to old erroneous teachings?
As a student of New Thought, I was taught a different view on sin and mistakes. Sin, they taught me, is just about missing the mark! Just like in target practice: Sometimes we miss the bull’s eye. Do we beat ourselves up for this? No, if we want to hit that bull’s eye, we continue to practice and practice until we are hitting the target more than missing.
Maybe this is a better way to look at forgiveness. We just missed the mark… so we reload again and again until we get it right. A much healthier and productive way to forgive ourselves, don’t you think? And this makes it easier for us to forgive others, remembering that they, too, miss the mark sometimes.
You might want to check out this Forgiveness Prayer Video