What I'm finally beginning to understand is that forgiveness is not a 1-sided relationship. It's not for me to forgive an unwilling participant. The 'guilty party' or person who violated your trust needs to care that they hurt you, ask for and want your forgiveness and change their pattern of behavior. They should want to reconcile or offer restitution of some sort. Even in our relationship with God, we are forgiven, but not until we turn to Him and confess our brokenness or transgressions toward other people or toward Him. We need a sincere heart, we need to surrender our pride and not have any intention of continuing in our old ways.
The bible says to forgive 70x7 times, but if the other party could care less about what they've done and who they've hurt, which means their intentions are not set on doing their part in healing the damage they've created, then I wonder if the act of forgiveness can truly begin? Back to the CD, maybe it will tell me.
