In today’s society, many see forgiveness as a sign of weakness. Let me assure you: it is not. When we don’t forgive, we hold onto bitterness and it leaves less room in our minds and hearts for bigger and better things. I’m not going to give a sermon and say you should forgive because that’s what Jesus would’ve done, or say that not forgiving is ungodly because I would encourage even non-Christians and those who don’t associate with a particular religion to forgive those who hurt them. And here’s why.

When you’re bitter, it only hurts you.

Technically that’s not true, but most of the pain caused by bitterness is going to affect you, not the person you’re bitter with. So forgive that person that hurt you and fill your life with things other than bitterness (because being bitter isn’t a great quality).

When you don’t forgive, you’re essentially saying that you’re above whoever has wronged you.

No one in this world is perfect, so when we don’t forgive, we’re saying that our wrongs are less wrong than someone else’s wrongs. Now, there are different circumstances. Yes, it’s much harder to forgive someone who killed one of your friends because they were driving drunk than it is to forgive someone who spread a rumor about you, but when it comes down to lies and pettiness, just forgive. You don’t even need to wait until they apologize or ask for your forgiveness. It’s not even necessary that you tell them you forgive them. Forgive them in your heart and move on. Then you can focus your time and energy on better things.

Forgiveness is something that everyone wants.

No one wants to be hated or disliked. You should do unto others as you wish to be done unto you (or however that cliché old saying goes). If you expect others to forgive you when you’ve wronged them (which you will, I promise) than you ought to forgive others when they’ve wronged you.

If I could sum up this article in three words, they’d be: “just forgive them.” By all means, I hope you don’t take away from this article that I want you to get walked all over. Just because you forgive someone, it does not mean you have to be best friends with them. You don’t even need to accept them back into your life again. When you forgive, try to forget what they did, but don’t forget how they made you feel.