Forgiving your enemy
Who needs Enemies? An enemy can be someone who has repeatably hurt you, someone who behaves badly towards you simply someone who is consistantly hostile. When we are confronted by our enemies our flight or fight responce usually kicks in. We may feel a knot in our stomoch or a feeling of intense anger. I have experienced in my life that my enemies not only make attacks at my person but will also attack my reputation and try to alter other peoples perception of me. In one instance my reputation was almost perminantly scarred by my biggest enemy. However, i made the choice to forgive and love him rather than hate and envy him. I can now genuinely feel pleased for the sucsess they have had in life and wish them good luck on their journey.
One of the fundemental teachings in Christianity is love for Enemies - not always an easy task. One significant factor i find that helps in this area is to think of your enemy as someone who also desires happyness and not to suffer. Your enemy has an equal right to their own happyness. Reminding yourself that your enemy is also a child of God, with their own fears and insecurties is perhaps the first step towards feeling compassion for them. They are equally if not more so as flawed a human being as you. If you can't feel compassion for them at least don't give in to hatred and strike out at them. If you show them enough compassion and forgiveness towards your enemy, perhaps over time you could change their attitude towards you. As Martin Luther KIng Jr said only love can drive out hate.
"If we could read the secret history of our enemies we would find suffering and hurt enough to disarm all hostility"
As discussed on previous pages, forgiveness has a way of releasing the power of offending individuals. With forgiveness you don't have to live with the results of your enemies thinking - dogma. The relationship between forgiveness and freedom is something i feel strongly about.
One of the fundemental teachings in Christianity is love for Enemies - not always an easy task. One significant factor i find that helps in this area is to think of your enemy as someone who also desires happyness and not to suffer. Your enemy has an equal right to their own happyness. Reminding yourself that your enemy is also a child of God, with their own fears and insecurties is perhaps the first step towards feeling compassion for them. They are equally if not more so as flawed a human being as you. If you can't feel compassion for them at least don't give in to hatred and strike out at them. If you show them enough compassion and forgiveness towards your enemy, perhaps over time you could change their attitude towards you. As Martin Luther KIng Jr said only love can drive out hate.
"If we could read the secret history of our enemies we would find suffering and hurt enough to disarm all hostility"
As discussed on previous pages, forgiveness has a way of releasing the power of offending individuals. With forgiveness you don't have to live with the results of your enemies thinking - dogma. The relationship between forgiveness and freedom is something i feel strongly about.