Happiness, Love, Heartbreak & Forgiveness

What would this world be without love? Not a very happy place. To me, happiness walks hand in hand with love. Love of and from the Lord, my husband, my kids, my family, my friends and my church. To me this world would be a very unhappy place without love. Of course, when you have love and happiness, there is also going to be heartbreak and sadness. Whether it's from losing a loved one to death, someone moving away, a betrayal, losing a job, etc, there are so many reasons for this heartbreak. Which brings me to forgiveness. How does forgiveness fit in with some of the heartbreaks mentioned above? Sometimes the forgiveness is for someone else and sometimes it's for ourselves. The guilt of not doing something we should have done, not calling that special friend/family before they took their last breath, could we have done something different in a situation. We may have not done anything wrong but in ourselves we ask these questions thus needing to forgive ourselves and move forward.  Maybe, it means forgiving someone who has done wrong to us, even when they didn't say "I'm Sorry". This is something that's really hard to do but it's an important step in moving on. Tho we may not forget and we may not trust those as much, we still need to forgive.

In my life I have had so much happiness and love. The love of Jesus when I got saved, the love of my husband when we were dating and how it grows more everyday. And those who are parents know about the love for our babies. The love that started when they were in my belly and grew more when they were born and continues to grow each and everyday. The love for my parents, family, friends and so on. All of these things, these people, that I love and that love me make me so very happy. I can not imagine life with out these people. But like I mentioned before, along with the love and happiness, I've had my share of heartbreak and sadness.

Throughout my life I've had my heart broken many times. Before I go on, I must say, the good times and blessings have definitly out weighed the bad. But back to the heartbreak and forgiveness. When my grandmother passed away my heart was broken. I was so close to her. I had so much guilt because I didn't go and see her in the hospital before she died. I said I would wait until the next day. The next day she had passed. I felt so guilty. It took a while but I eventually forgave myself. Tho it does come to mind from time to time. The feeling of your heartbreaking when your child hurts and you can't do anything to help. I've also had my share of people hurting me during my lifetime.  The most recent situation being this year. Some of these people during these times have apologized and some have not. Have I forgiven these people? Yes. Do I love these people still? Yes. I am very friendly to all of them. Some I see, some I don't. Some I trust again and some I don't. But I still love them all and have forgiven them all. However, I will say it's easier to forgive those that have apologized but it's been necessary to forgive them all. Sometimes the memories or problems come back to mind, and I'm talking about things from many years ago to more recent situations. When they do I pray really hard because I do not want things, hurt from the past to get in the way of my happiness in the present and future. God has forgiven me and I can forgive others. We are all human and it does take time and prayer. None of us are perfect and we all mess up, tho I always say, how you fix the problem/situation is very important.
We learn lessons, who we can trust, who we can depend on, who we can talk to, etc. and we can always find a way to forgive, a way to be happy, a way to love and a way to move past the heartbreak. Love and happiness are more important than grudges and hurt. Don't let it steal your joy. It's only hurting yourself.