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Sunday, February 17, 2008

Forgiveness Is For You, Too!

On FLYLady's email list, today she posted a Sunday Musing called "Cut Your Losses". [to read it, you'll have to email me for a copy.]

In it, she talks about how important it is to get rid of all the clutter in our lives, not just the stuff. It may be someone who doesn't treat you right, or who is abusive.

She urges us to accept when we have made a mistake, correct it, forgive ourselves, and move forward from there.

Which actually leads me to another question:

Why is it so much easier to forgive someone who has made an honest mistake, than it is ourselves, under the same circumstances?

I mean, if someone made the exact same mistake, and they had acted in good faith, we would tell them not to beat themselves up, everyone makes mistakes, etc.

But when it's us, we are unforgiving of ourselves for being stupid, etc. Isn't it better to cut our loss, accept the 'course correction', and move on to bigger and better things, instead of endlessly berating ourselves for our error?

FLYLady has it right. We have to remember that we have value, as well... and that we deserve to be treated well, just like anyone else. It's something that is easy to forget, in the day-to-day care of other people.

What do you think?


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3 opinions on this post:

Anonymous said...

Only we know all the "terrible" things that we've done. The other person has only made one mistake, we've made lots. We're somehow less deserving of forgiveness than the other person.

Anonymous said...

Check out The Two Faces of Anger - Guilt and Resentment.

------- said...

@solomon broad:

I hadn't thought about it that way... it's true, but it's not true, if you know what I mean.

I read the article, and he has a point; it was very thought-provoking. I feel another post coming on. Thank you for the link!!