Forgiveness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Good morning, my baby. And welcome back to Gentle Hours. The softest part of the morning where we sit with ourselves before the world begins asking anything of us. Before the phone starts ringing, before the responsibilities line up at the door, before any of the noise of the day begins to crowd any parts of our spirit. This moment, this moment belongs to you. So wherever you are this morning, just pause with me for a second. Maybe you're still laying in bed with the covers wrapped around you. Maybe you are just quiet with a cup of coffee, warming your hands. Maybe you're driving somewhere early, and the sky is just beginning to wake up. Wherever you are, just take a slow breath in. Let go gently. No rush. No pressure. Just breathe like a person who has decided to meet the day softly. And this week's word for gentle hours is forgive. This morning, we are talking about forgiving ourselves. Because if we're honest, many people walk through life just carrying a courtroom inside of their own mind. They keep replaying decisions, they keep revisiting mistakes. They keep holding themselves guilty for things that happened years ago. Some people forgive everybody else, but keep themselves locked in a sentence that will never ever end. And my baby, that kind of holding will sit in your spirit for years if you let it. Some of us are still punishing ourselves for the version of us that didn't know what we knew. We're still blaming ourselves for relationships that broke. Still questioning choices we made when we were hurt, young, confused, or simply trying to survive something we didn't understand yet. But you do understand that growth changes the way that we see our past. And sometimes the most passionate thing that you can do is look back at your younger self and just simply say you were doing the best that you could with all of the understanding that you had. Understand that you were learning, you were navigating life without the wisdom you have today, and that version of you deserves so much grace. Let's inhale gently and then release. Now, when we say forgiving yourself, now that does not entail pretending that a mistake never took place. It simply means that you are understanding that mistakes are part of you being human. It means recognizing that life is truly a teacher, and sometimes the lessons that come through experiences we would never willingly choose. And to be honest, some of the wisdom you carry today came from moments that once made you cry yourself to sleep. Some of the boundaries you have now were built after you trusted the wrong people. And some of the strength in your voice was formed after seasons where you felt unheard. And none of that defines you as broken. It just makes you season, my baby. But if you keep holding your past against yourself, you never give yourself the present self a chance to breathe. Forgiveness is not always about letting someone off the hook. Sometimes forgiveness is about unlocking this cage that you accidentally built around your own heart because guilt. Guilt has a way of convincing people that they deserve to stay stuck, that they deserve to replay the worst moments of their lives over and over again. But God did not design your life to be a permanent punishment. And your your life is meant to move forward. It is meant for you to grow. It is meant for you to evolve. It is meant for you to become something wiser, stronger, and more aware than what it once was. And you know that can that cannot happen if you refuse to release yourself. So this morning I want you to sit with the simple truth. Baby, you are allowed to grow beyond the person that you once were. You are allowed to become someone new, and forgiving yourself is often just that doorway that makes that transformation possible. And now, as we sit here together in this moment, I want to offer you a few affirmations to carry you with you this week. And I want you to let these words settle in your spirit very slowly. And you can repeat them in your mind if they resonate with you. So here we go, you ready? I release the guilt that no longer serves my growth. I allow myself to learn without condemning who I used to be. My past may inform me, but it does not imprison me. I am allowed to grow beyond my mistakes. I give myself the same compassion I offer to others. I forgive myself and I continue forward with wisdom. How did I feel? Let your shoulders soften. Let your mind loosen its grip on whatever memories it's been holding on to tightly. Because healing often begins the moment you stop arguing with the past and your past self. This is something important I want you to hear. The past, my baby, cannot be rewritten. But the way you carry it can absolutely change. You can choose to carry it that shame, or you can carry it as wisdom. And wisdom, my baby, is much lighter. Wisdom allows you to walk forward with lessons instead of change. And some of the strongest people you ever meet are the ones who have made peace with their own history. See, they they no longer hide from that part of their life. They no longer run from that part of their life. They simply recognize that every chapter, even the painful ones, it helps shape the person they have become. You know there's something powerful about a person who has forgiven themselves. You'll notice that their spirit becomes lighter, their presence becomes calmer, their compassion for others, it deepens. They understand what it means to be human. Now, I want you to take one more slow breath with me. Inhale and gently release. You have nothing to fix, nothing for you to figure out right now. I just need you to breathe, my baby. And if there is a part of you that has been holding on to guilt for too long, imagine setting that weight down beside you. It doesn't mean that you deny what happened, but you choose not to carry it into tomorrow. I want to remind you that forgiveness is not weakness. Forgiveness allows you the freedom, and sometimes the person who most deserves that freedom is you, my baby. So as you move through this week, I want you to carry this word with you. Forgive. Baby, forgive the version of you that did not know any better. Forgive the choices that taught you hard, hard lessons. Forgive yourself for just being human in moments when life was difficult to understand, and allow that grace to create room for the person that you are still becoming. Now, I want to thank you for sitting with me during these gentle hours.