Love has been on my heart lately, and this is a different kind of love, but one that in my opinion, has been forgotten in our society. We need forgiveness, if only for ourselves.

There comes a time in every person's life where you get the choice and chance to show how big of a butt you are and put your foot in your mouth. It takes practice, especially from someone who's as sassy and has the perfect comeback for every situation. It takes patience, which is granted only through the Lord, trust me on this.

I'm not claiming I'm anywhere close to perfect. In fact, I think I'm one of the worse offenders out there with speaking out of malice and not love. It's hard, and all too easy to fall into a habit where you have the perfect opportunity to "get even with" or "get vengeance" on someone else instead of handling situations with grace.

That being said, recently I've been hurt by someone who I never thought would hurt me. It was someone I considered family, and no matter what happened I thought they would look past my faults and accept me for myself, warts and all. That didn't happen, and instead, I was called out, in front of others, God and everyone, and was hurt for speaking my peace and trying to move on in my life.

I won't lie, I cried. I thought about getting into an argument. I thought about saying some really awful things to that person, and I knew exactly how they knew how to get to me, I would push the right buttons to hurt them as well. I knew I could hurt them as badly as they hurt me. I had the ammunition, so... why couldn't I do it?

Why couldn't I just blow up and use all of the horrible things I knew about them in my years of knowing them?

I still love them, that's why.

Not only that, but I realized that hurting that person wouldn't do anything but cause me more pain. I didn't want them to hurt. Maybe that makes me weak in some eyes. Maybe that makes me seem like a child, but I don't think so.

I think I actually made the right decision there. So, I'm writing this to challenge each of you to do the same. Show love. Don't let yourself get caught up in the emotions of what others do and set your own standards. Don't "snap back" and be the cruelest person you can just to get even.

It's not only worth it, but it starts the healing process for yourself.

"Forgiveness is the final form of love." -Fritz Chery