![]() The Universal House of Justice, the global governing body of the Baha’i Faith, acknowledged how hard forgiveness can be, but reminded us that nursing grievances is “spiritually poisonous to the soul”: You are the one who gets burned.” I realized that I needed to forgive all the people who hurt me, not necessarily because they deserved forgiveness, but because I deserved peace. One popular saying puts it this way: “holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else. ![]() I felt emotionally damaged and I resented all of the people that hurt me because of it.įinally, in high school I realized that by not forgiving, the only person I hurt was myself. I began to suffer from extreme anxiety, and would freak out whenever family encouraged me to reach out to others or spend time with people I didn’t know. When I would try to play with them on the playground, they would ask me to leave because the “monkey bars were too full.” I faced so much rejection, exclusion, and isolation at such a young age that it crippled my confidence for a really long time. During elementary school, when I would try to talk to classmates at recess, they would tell me to stop following them. There were few years of school that I actually enjoyed, because while I may have soared academically, kids often wounded me emotionally. People were always cruel to me growing up. I immediately cringed, knowing fully well that forgiveness has never been my strongest virtue. In the article, I shared excerpts from the Baha’i writings that highlight the importance of forgiving people who have hurt you, because the Baha’i teachings advise us to see our enemies as friends and to treat them as such.Īfter a close family friend read the article, she told me that it can be challenging to genuinely love hurtful people, and asked if I could write an article about forgiveness. I recently wrote an article called “ The Hypocrisy of Frenemies ,” which reflected on the hypocrisy and dishonesty of pretending to like people that you dislike. Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. … concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. ![]() That’s why the Baha’i writings advise us to: They destroy our peace, well-being, joy, and if we’re not careful, our soul. Hate, anger, resentment, jealousy, and other negative feelings are all heavy burdens to bear. In the years since then I have never forgotten that conversation. I paused to process my teacher’s comment and allow his message to sink in. My teacher noticed our shocked and somewhat judgmental expressions, and clarified: “It must be exhausting to hold so much hate in your heart.” We had just finished expressing our concerns over the fate of a country with a sexist, racist tyrant for a leader. ![]() “It must be exhausting to be ,” my anthropology teacher once said during class while I studied abroad in London.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |