Forgive Yourself

5 Pitfalls of Positive Thinking 12 Gifts for Christmas: Service

November 28th, 2007 by Nneka -- Bookmark on del.icio.us

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And the shame of not choosing higher
And all the disappointing moments fade into God

(Chorus)
No mistakes have been made in God,
All the ways that we seem to fail,
In God all fade, all fades into God

– Rickie Byars Beckwith, All Fades Into God

Having learned about the Law of Attraction growing up, I knew that my thoughts created my life. As a result, I spent a good bit of time beating myself over the head for “choosing” wrong, or thinking wrong. Thankfully, I also learned about the Law of Attraction as part of a theology, not a philosophy for living unto itself. However, I never really got it until I heard those lyrics from Rickie Byars’ song, All Fades Into God.

See, try as we might to manipulate our world, first by external force, now through the influence of our thoughts, we may still make mistakes. You may turn right when every fiber of your Being told you to turn left. You can spend a good bit of time sitting at a crossroads, beating yourself over the head saying that you should have turned right back there. What you miss is the opportunity to choose again, the opportunity to go a different way.

Forgiveness allows you to take from the mistake what you need and leave the rest. It allows you to move past the “mistake” and into a state of grace. From that state you can experience love and wholeness. Better than that, it allows you to move into action.

Whatever choices you made that brought you to this place in your life, take responsibility for them. Taking responsibility means that you acknowledge that you made the choice. Let go of it then. That time is past, there is nothing that you can do about it now. What you can do now is choose in this moment. Every time you choose, make it with all the courage that you can muster based on everything you know in that moment. Know that that was what you did in the past. Put down the stick. You can forgive yourself.

In Spirit,
Nneka

PS. If this post looks familiar, it’s because it was originally posted as a guest post on Kara Leah’s site.

Entry Filed under: Spiritual Growth, Self Awareness, Spirituality, Personal Development, Life Skills, Relationships and Emotional Mastery

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6 Comments Add your own

1. Deborah Tracy | November 28th, 2007 at 10:37 am

It truly is all about forgiveness of self, and choosing again. Unknowingly, I attracted my life experiences by focusing on all the ‘bad’ things that happened to me. In recovery, I started to accept responsibility for the choices I made and learned to make better ones. The stick is down, at least for today.
2. Forgive Yourself Guest Po&hellip | November 28th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

[…] Update: The guest post is no longer available, but you can find the content here. […]
3. Tshombe | November 29th, 2007 at 12:11 am

Excellent post, Nneka. Thank you.

It seems to boil down to the concept of ‘acceptance’ and value of all of who we are. Taking responsibility for what we create in our lives doesn’t mean judging ourselves, assigning blame, or sitting in dust cloth and ashes.

It reminds me of Deepak Chopra in his book Peace is the Way. He writes:

“Whatever mistake you have made about who you are is temporary. Your true identity has remained untouched. You have never sinned against it or affected it in any way except to lose touch with it. (italics mine). The prevailing problem for each person is separation and nothing else…If you can cherish yourself even as you discard your current favorite mask, you are living perfectly in the way of peace.”
4. Albert | UrbanMonk.Net | December 1st, 2007 at 12:08 am

Thank you Nneka for the great reminder. There are so many things that the little critic in our head is always condemning us for, and forgiveness and self-compassion is one of the best ways to shut the little bugger up

Cheers,
Albert | UrbanMonk.Net
Modern personal development, entwined with ancient spirituality.
5. 12 Gifts for Christmas: F&hellip | December 10th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

[…] Today, give yourself and 2 other people the gift of forgiveness. […]
6. Amanda | January 31st, 2008 at 2:47 pm

I found this on youtube, I believe that this video says it all. We need to get to a point where we remember just how divine we ALL are.