Do You Punish Or Forgive?

“Forgiveness simply means loving someone enough to pursue healing instead of punishment when they have wronged you.” -DaveWillis.org

Keep this in mind whenever you have an opportunity to either forgive or punish someone.

I know that there is not a single person, including you and I, that has not experienced some type of wrong done against them. It can be very hard depending on the circumstances and who did it. A lot of emotions can boil over at that point and you have a choice.

• You can go with punishing a person for their actions against you hoping that they will learn through some type of pain as to how their actions hurt you.

or…

• You can go with forgiving a person for their actions against you hoping that through your love for that person will allow for you both to learn from the situation and how to make things better.

This topic is not an easy one to cover because of three factors.

1. Not everyone will view a certain situation the same. What may be a minor issue to you could be a major issue to others…and vice versa.
2. Past experiences and lessons may have a bigger role in how you deal with a current situation versus treating each situation different.
3. How you deal with the situation and how a person will handle the outcome are the two biggest unknowns because nobody can read or predict how things will turn out.

With these three factors, there is only thing that you and I can do when faced with such an opportunity: think about the well-being of ourselves and others. Here is what I mean by that:

1. Stress and blood pressure levels rise whenever you get angry about a situation. If you allow for that anger to take control like that, you can find yourself facing two possible options:
   1. You could wind up in a hospital being treated for high blood pressure or stress.
   2. You could find yourself saying and doing something that can place you in jail and or cause harm to yourself and that person.
2. Making someone hurt as well does not help solve all problems. It may have helped some people growing up, but for others, they have carried that pain into their adulthood and have allow for that pain to guide how they deal with their problems today.
3. Think about how you want people to handle you whenever you do wrong and try to guide your actions to a situation based off of that. If you do not want to be hurt when you do wrong, why do it to someone else?

I encourage you to look at your well-being and try to forgive a person for the benefits that it gives you and that person. For you, it gives you a chance at having a healthier and happier life, impacting someone’s life through teaching love and forgiveness, and being a better person. For the other person, it gives them a chance to learn from their mistakes without fear of punishment, have a second chance at making things right, and being able to teach themselves and others how to deal with a situation based off of how you dealt with them. Let’s remember that healing a situation with punishment only brings pain and suffering, but when you are healing with forgiveness, it will ultimately bring love and happiness.

I have three questions based on my previous work that I want to ask you. These questions will get you to see that you have this moment and you got to take advantage of it to make the choice to forgive, let this moment go, and inspire someone through your actions. Feel free to read them whenever you get a chance. Also, feel free to comment or answer below.

1. Are You Ready To Pass The Plate Of Forgiveness?
2. Why Must You Let The Moments Come And Go?
3. What Will You Motivate And Inspire In Your Life And The World Today?

-Michael J. Fite