Beginning Again

Forgiveness isn’t pretending nothing has happened, or pretending that what happened didn’t hurt. It isn’t even forgetting it completely, and it isn’t going back and starting over as though it hadn’t ever happened. Instead, forgiveness is refusing to let anything permanently destroy the relationship. There’s a place for saying, “I’m sorry.” There’s a place for assuring the other person that “all is forgiven.” But the goal of both is to rebuild the relationship. One of the amazing things about a healthy beginning again is that the relationship is often stronger than it was before.

—Kenneth Chafin, How to Know When You’ve Got It Made. Christianity Today, Vol. 29, no. 18.
See: Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13; Proverbs 17:17