Very good point Ingridave! Forgiving and forgetting ARE two different things. We often hear, "to forgive is to forget". Maybe there are those that are spiritually strong enough to do that? But that hasn't been my personal experience. Though forgetting would be a wonderful thing sometimes.

One thing that I have found to be true is this; true freedom comes from forgiveness. By forgiving and letting go of the anger or harbored resentment, we take back the power our abusers have had over us. Many times we don't realize that we are allowing them, often many years later, to still have power and control in our lives.

Forgiving doesn't mean that we are saying, "What you did was ok, I'm over what has happened." Many times it is just the realization that to move forward we have to cut the tie that binds. We come to the decision to release ourselves of that anger in order to make room for happiness.

Quite literally it is, "Letting go and letting God!" We let go and give it over to Him. We can rest in the assurance that we have done what God would have us do and through Him, there will be justice.