SEC17 WK:#1: Forgiveness unites family

Forgiveness can be compared to a gentle breeze that brings healing to our soul and has the potential to solve any disunity or discord in our family life. The significance of forgiveness is to bring peace and harmony in the family. Despite the challenges , forgiveness open doors to reconciliation, so that family members can open up and let go of past grievances that has been eating them up, thereby fostering growth amongst family members.

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To the society, forgiveness might be misconstrued for weakness or accepting you are guilty for doing something wrong but it’s far better to look weak in the eyes of people than a shattered home. You don’t need endorsement from anyone to run a peaceful home. For instance, In my family, forgiveness is like the magical glue that has kept our bond stronger. We have had times where money had brought serious misunderstanding between my siblings and I, because few of us felt cheated.

But With heart to heart conversations we’d among one another, we forgave one another and later kissed and hugged. Forgiveness was able to play a major role in creating an enabling environment in the family, where grievances could be resolved with love and understanding.

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There are moments when we feel betrayed by our family members, that hurt us so badly that we start having resentment towards them. To overcome resentment, you have to acknowledge those emotions and work towards freeing yourself from it. Although it might not be easy letting go of those past memories of the betrayal, making it challenging to move forward or might take time to build trust again. But with consistent communication and action that demonstrate sincerity, trust will rebuild itself

Like I mentioned earlier in the introductory part of the post, forgiveness is like a gentle breeze that can bring emotional healing to the soul. All those hurts, betrayals, accumulated pain, is been released when you forgive and it’s replaced with love, peace and healing.

Forgiveness has it’s way of promoting communication among family members that has decided to let go of their differences or fights among one another. Dialogue and resolution of conflicts is open to affected people and relationships is restored once again, thereby strengthening the bond that foster positive family dynamics.

One can never be too careful, so, for the sake of this post, I’ll change some few things for the sake of peace.

I know a very rich lady that once had a beautiful and peaceful family. She had three kids and a step daughter. Her first two kids was from the south and the other was from the north. After the death of her second husband who is a major in the army, she left the north and came back to the south with all her kids alongside one of her stepdaughter. She acquired a lot of wealth and property while in the south and was a big business woman.

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When she was old and had a brief illness that took her life. During the long while she was in the hospital, the one who frequently visited was her last born from the second husband. The step daughter practically stayed in the hospital throughout. The other older siblings visited once in a while in the hospital before she passed on to be with the Lord.

The whole fight now started as a result of her property. She haven’t even been buried yet, those of us within the neighborhood had started hearing little rumors of fights between the siblings as a result of the late woman’s properties. The fight now intensified when the lady was buried. The stepdaughter and the last son has same dad, they were on one side while the elderly siblings from same dad were on a different side.

The first child had immediately taken over her big supermarket a month after the burial. Her hotel that the step daughter was managing the second daughter took it and chase the step daughter away, telling her to go back to her father’s house forgetting that it was the same father took you and your brother in, when their mum married him. The last born was left with nothing except the big duplex. He decided to claim it for himself. That was were the 3rd world war started.

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The fight was really fierce because the last son and the step daughter, through their late father’s connection got some military men from the barracks to secure the entire property including the hotel and the big supermarket. It took the elders from the extended family to help unite this family again because grievances was extending to the grand children.

The process of forgiveness was not easy because it took a very long time before they even started greeting each other. But as the children chose forgiveness over resentment and ignored all the bad advice they were getting from both families and friends, Walls began to crumble, and bridges were rebuilt between them. The step daughter was given back her accommodation in the hotel and was reinstated to her position as the manager. She was reporting to the 3 children. A lot was said and done at the meeting with the family elders.

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• Acknowledging your mistakes and taking responsibility for it.
• Communicating openly about what is bothering you rather than bottling up your feelings.
• Empathizing with one another in the family.
• By apologizing when you are at fault and be remorseful
• Be Open to reconciliation and healing
• Before you tell others to forgive, make sure you are practicing forgiveness yourself.

I’m inviting @bossj23 and @emmy01 for the contest