The Freeing Nature of Genuine Forgiveness

“I don’t like you, okay?” She shot back at Lance on the phone. “I don’t date men anymore. Men are a waste of precious time!” The words stung him. He told her good night and never called back again. Cara was angry and bitter. She was hurt deeply by her last boyfriend. She thought they would get married and build a life together, but after three years he upped and walked, leaving her angry at God and him. “My life is better without them. All of them are the same”, she told herself. She believed it.

One day she walked in to work and her boss called her to his office. “What does he want now?” She thought to herself. “It has come to my attention that you are not dealing with the customers well Miss Lewis. “Of course I handle my customers well. Who told you that?” She was talking loudly, practically yelling at Mr. Briggs. “Calm down Cara! Why are you behaving so crossly? This is the same behaviour I was saying that you display in front of the customers when their demands irritate you. I have noticed that you’re especially cruel to the men”, he said. Cara bit her lips. She had dealt with a few of them rather badly. One man, she told to get lost and go find another place to fill his dirty prescriptions. “What is going on with you? You seem like an angry person.” Cara broke down in tears as Mr Briggs asked the question. “I am angry at my ex-boyfriend for dumping me on Valentine’s Day and for wasting my time for three years. Now, my wounded emotions feels that every man is the same kind of garbage!”

Her words were harsh and bitter. “Are you going to sit and let bitterness consume your whole life? Is he worth it?” His question was to the point because it touched Cara’s heart in a special way. “I deserve to be angry don’t I?” She asked. “Yes, but there comes a time when you must choose to forgive the people that hurt you. You need to do it to heal you. You’re going to complicate everything you do today if you keep drawing from yesterday’s piggy bank. He is gone. Let him go, and dip your hands into the bank of today. You have a job, a family, and people who love you. Leave the past in the past and focus on today.” He was very kind and his speech reached a sensitive spot in her soul.

He was right; she needed to let her ex go. As she stood in the office, she thanked him and vowed in her heart to only draw from the current again, and leave the piggy bank of yesterday behind.