Forgiveness

I went through a lengthy process of forgiveness with my father who had been angry, full of rage and beat me when I was a child. He died several years ago from complications due to his Alzheimer’s. The forgiveness process began with me realizing how angry I was, continued with my figuring out how similar we were and ended with me loving him and realizing that there was nothing to forgive, he was just another human worthy of love and doing his best. The process of forgiveness was extremely important for my development and it was also important for me to reach the "knowing" that within the unconditional love of God, forgiveness was not necessary since there was no offense. Mitchell puts it well "Where there is no offense to begin with, there is nothing to forgive. It is more accurate to say that within the kingdom of God there is only acceptance [love].