Forgive Yourself

  Joyce Meyer says: "Do yourself a favour and forgive." How do I come to forgive my brethren and neighbours without first forgiving myself? Forgiving oneself might sound easier but it actually is not. I might even ask, "What is it about me that I need to forgive myself? What did I do to myself that requires my own mercy and love?" One of these could infer millions of answers, it could that: "I hate myself for having married a short or too tall or an ugly man or lady."; "Of all people, why did I even bear such a hopeless child?; "Why is it always me being hurt every time I try falling in love?"; "How come I never get promoted at my job?"; "I really hate it that I am fat or short or too tall!"; and many other questions you may ever wish or already have posed to yourself. These even block that opportune moment you have to tremendously change someone's life by sharing about your personal life.

Forgiving oneself requires one's acknowledgment and acceptance that one has not been having mercy on himself or herself. As I stated in the previous post, this mercy has already been accorded to us though it takes us time to realize this. At the realization of this, we ought to perform a 'letting go' action. This refers to realizing what exactly has been holding us back and striving to transcend that state. We need to accept ourselves the way we are for I say to you, "You are perfect just the way you are." We know we cannot be any more perfect than our Creator for He is All-Perfect and we participate in His perfection. The perfect YOU is not all about the body shape that our eyes perceive. That perfect YOU is the inner you, what comes out of your heart is the perfect YOU, whether you stammer or speak fluently; cry like a baby or try to keep yourself strong by not crying; you love unconditionally or have strings attached to your love. It is that YOU that depicts what we comprehend of you. The Perfection you are called to participate in does not complain about your faults, weaknesses, height, weight, kind of partner you have, hopeless child you bore, and many other human complaints. All of these are encompassed and surpassed by the love that streams from our All-Perfect creator. With the outpouring of this love, our inner wounds are filled and healed by this. Then are we able to forgive, love and cherish ourselves.

Mercy As a Power: A Power of the Heart

 Pope Francis in his encyclical on The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy tells us that "God's mercy will always be greater than any sin" and here we are, still living to our sins. Acknowledging our sins does not mean  dwelling in them the more, but rather coming out of them. It is in getting out of them that we need mercy as the driving force, the power with which we can rely on. This mercy we already have been granted is actually hard for us to recognize because we are too busy blaming ourselves. All we need do is be aware of the mercy that has been lavished upon our lives, and only then can we live life to the full. Just like any other machine, mercy also needs a driving force in which sense is the heart. The Holy Father talks of mercy as the 'beating heart' of the Gospel. It is this beating of the heart that enables us to emanate that mercy that your brother and sister require to have their wounds healed. Truth be told, mercy is something easy to talk about but hard to practice and its being hard to practice does not mean that we can not have a go at it. Let us try to first be merciful to ourselves and then try our level best radiating that mercy to our dear brothers and sisters.
 As I conclude, allow me wish you the best of luck as you try to live by the words that come out of your mouth. Let us be the light of the world so that others, looking at your lifestyle, may be healed by the way you like. Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, held a doctrine that knowledge is virtue and this implied knowing the good is doing the good, but Noooo!!!!! I say to you! To know the good is to try living the good.