“Unforgiveness is choosing to stay trapped in a jail cell of bitterness, serving time for someone else’s crime…”
This is a quote I saw recently on a wall located within a local Salvation Army shelter. It’s one that definitely grabbed my attention enough that I took out my phone to capture a snapshot of it before I left. Why? Because unforgiveness is something that kept me locked away in a jail cell of my own making where bitterness was the only thing there that reigned supreme within me.
I honestly thought it was ok at the time to never forgive a diving coach who molested me, a father who committed suicide, a mother who drank herself into a deathly fall down the stairs, or an ex-partner who had such serious financial struggles in life that it eventually led to the loss of a business we owned together. What I didn’t see though in being unforgiving to each of these people was that the only person getting hurt in doing so was myself.
Living in that jail cell of bitterness was how I actually hurt myself. That’s because that bitterness was really nothing more than me just living with resentments. And like I say in life time and time again these days, all resentments are nothing more than just poison to the soul.
This poison I’m speaking of is the anger that arises out of that bitterness and resentment. When harbored long enough, anger will become like cancer to the body. It will eat away at a person until all the healthy parts are gone. My own lack of forgiveness to those people who had harmed me truly did eat away at me from within until I became so consumed with negativity that I even held bitterness towards myself.
Through the help of my Higher Power and the 12 Steps of recovery, I was given a key to leave that self-made jail cell once and for all. That key was in practicing forgiveness and today I do that anytime I begin to feel bitterness towards anyone or anything, including myself.
So please don’t allow your own ego’s to fool you like I once did. Unforgiveness might feel justified in the beginning when you get seriously hurt, but in the long run, the only person that’s really going to suffer from practicing it is you. Always send love, forgiveness, and peace to anyone you ever feel bitterness towards, and I can promise you that your life will feel a lot freer than if you don’t…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson