Forgiveness

What is forgiveness?

According to my handy online Thesaurus...
1. Compassionate feelings that support a willingness to forgive.
2. The act of excusing a mistake or offense.

This would lead me to believe that in order to be forgiven or pardoned, one must have committed a mistake, an offense, a blatant error which hurt another. Yet, I question...is this always the case? Does the offender typically know when they are hurting another, or is the other possibly incapable of forgiveness, or perhaps fashioning a crime in their mind, so that they have a reason to be bitter and angry?

I know in my life, I have hurt other people. I haven't been there when I should have, I've forgotten to call when they needed me, I've said something which was taken the wrong way- or was a comment I shouldn't have said period. I've also been hurt by others. I've been left out, I've been lied to and put down, I've been gossiped about. At what point is it time to let go of these past transgressions and go on with life?

No one benefits from bitterness and grudge holding. No one lives a longer life by gossiping and defaming the reputation of the innocent. The inability to forgive, no matter the reason, will eat away at your soul until there is nothing left but a shell of the vibrant person you once were. Recruiting a following of fellow haters, for no other reason, than to form a camaraderie of animosity to feed off of perceived transgressions will do nothing but lower others to your level of empty gratification.

I also realize there are crimes which are often impossible to forgive- murder, molestation and rape, abuse, the list is long. I'll be honest in admitting, if someone hurt my child, I may never forgive them. Yet, I find inspiration in the mother who visits the drunk driver who killed her son in prison, the woman who turns a terrible sexual assault into a passion for educating college co-eds into the dangers of campus date rape, the family who chooses not to pursue wrongful death charges and rather advocates for causes to keep these occurrences from happening again.

My plea for today is this...
An end to a needless cycle of----
*hating another, just for the sake of hating
*refusing to forgive the innocent based on feelings of grief and bitterness
*choosing to follow a gossiper because it is easy to thrive off of controversies and look for blame.
I think if we could all do this, the world would be a better place...if nothing else, we'd all be a lot happier.