by Becky Nunn

Created on: September 25, 2010

Forgiveness:  Removing the Seed

Forgiveness to others not only helps them but also helps you.  Holding onto non-forgiveness is a means to continue punishing the person that has harmed you.  The bitterness inside yourself is never healed; the harm or hurt done by the individual begins as a seed being implanted into your soul and the irritation from this seed continues to grow until the seed is removed.  To confront the individual and attempt to remove/repair the hurt (seed) will usually result in the seed being dislodged and the irritation you felt will be removed.  However, if the confrontation/forgiveness is not completed then the seed becomes further embedded into your soul and, like any foreign item in your body, it will become infected and develop into a large wound that over time will grow and will eventually cause severe pain to yourself.  Forgiving someone will remove this embedded seed from your soul and release the pain you are experiencing. 

 I’ve heard people say:  “I’ll forgive but I won’t forget”, then is this conditional type of forgiveness sincere?  No, forgiveness means to let go, to forget the harm, and to move on.  If someone forgives but then constantly brings up the issue every time an opportunity arises, then true forgiveness has not occurred and the seed has not been dislodged.

 True forgiveness requires a great deal of work and self-examination.  Some damage is so severe that forgiveness may not occur for years but during this time-period you should make an effort to honestly self-examine the situation and make your forgiveness decision based on these results. 

 Some hurts done to people include physical and emotional abuse so severe that forgiveness can seem impossible but to remove the seed from your soul requires that you forgive the individual.  I’m not saying it will be easy and sometimes it may involve removing yourself from a relationship with that individual but forgiveness (for your own health) must be done so that you can move on to having the type of life that you deserve:  one without the pain of non-forgiveness. 

 Several years ago I decided to evaluate the pain I’ve felt for years from some past hurts done to me.  After many months of self-evaluation, I made the decision to forgive the individuals involved; I did not contact them or let them know about this decision but I let my soul know that I would forgive these individuals what was done to me.  The embedded seed deep within my soul was removed that day.  Within a few days, I noticed some of the internal pain I had was slowly going away and I was feeling something unknown to me for a long time:  joy and happiness. 

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