{"id":127,"date":"2017-07-15T00:54:34","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T00:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/?p=127"},"modified":"2017-07-05T20:32:41","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T20:32:41","slug":"uneasy-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cUN\u201dEASY FORGIVENESS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0039\"<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing that makes forgiving others difficult: to do so may require that we re-visit whatever painful event that caused the need for forgiveness in the first place.<\/p>\n

More often than not, we find it easier to brush the event under the carpet, keeping it safely in the past, so we don\u2019t have to confront our feelings or the other person\u2019s.<\/p>\n

However, while we pretend the event is over, it remains standing in the shadows, ever present.<\/p>\n

When we forgive ourselves and others, we free ourselves to move forward.<\/p>\n

We no longer live in the present looking backward.<\/p>\n

We free ourselves to create lives we value, no longer allowing our time to be consumed with anger or regret.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep your thoughts right\u2014for as you think, so you are.<\/p>\n

Thoughts are things; therefore, think only the things that will make the world better and you unashamed.\u201d<\/p>\n

~Henry H. Buckley<\/p>\n

Who do you need to forgive? Do you feel God calling you to forgive that person now?<\/p>\n

This essay was originally published in God Loves Your Dream<\/a>, a book of inspirational essays. Get your copy on Amazon.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the thing that makes forgiving others difficult: to do so may require that we re-visit whatever painful event that caused the need for forgiveness in the first place. More often than not, we find it easier to brush the event under the carpet, keeping it safely in the past, so we don\u2019t have to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4,28,5,2],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyday-faith","tag-everyday-faith","tag-forgiveness","tag-god","tag-suzanne-elizabeth-anderson"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cUN\u201dEASY FORGIVENESS - Everyday Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cUN\u201dEASY FORGIVENESS - Everyday Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s the thing that makes forgiving others difficult: to do so may require that we re-visit whatever painful event that caused the need for forgiveness in the first place. More often than not, we find it easier to brush the event under the carpet, keeping it safely in the past, so we don\u2019t have to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SuzanneElizabeths\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-15T00:54:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-05T20:32:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/files\/2017\/06\/IMG_0039-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Suzanne Anderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cUN\u201dEASY FORGIVENESS - Everyday Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cUN\u201dEASY FORGIVENESS - Everyday Faith","og_description":"Here\u2019s the thing that makes forgiving others difficult: to do so may require that we re-visit whatever painful event that caused the need for forgiveness in the first place. More often than not, we find it easier to brush the event under the carpet, keeping it safely in the past, so we don\u2019t have to…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Faith","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SuzanneElizabeths\/","article_published_time":"2017-07-15T00:54:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-07-05T20:32:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/files\/2017\/06\/IMG_0039-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Suzanne Anderson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html","name":"\u201cUN\u201dEASY FORGIVENESS - Everyday Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/files\/2017\/06\/IMG_0039-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2017-07-15T00:54:34+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-05T20:32:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d0d4cb98f96370a7e735285a76fff6fc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/files\/2017\/06\/IMG_0039-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/files\/2017\/06\/IMG_0039-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/2017\/07\/uneasy-forgiveness.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u201cUN\u201dEASY FORGIVENESS"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/","name":"Everyday Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Suzanne Anderson","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/d0d4cb98f96370a7e735285a76fff6fc","name":"Suzanne Anderson","description":"Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson writes religious\/inspirational fiction and non-fiction. She also writes Walking Our Faith, a weekly newspaper column about faith, for the Summit Daily News in Colorado. Suzanne was born in Fort Lauderdale, attended the University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship for swimming, and then worked on Wall Street. She left the bright lights of the big city twenty years ago and traveled the world. Suzanne now lives in Breckenridge, Colorado, with three very large Newfoundland dogs.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.suzanneelizabeths.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SuzanneElizabeths\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/author\/sanderson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}