The Power of Forgiveness

The trial went on for a while, and I couldn't wait for it to all be over. I just wanted to start getting closure. In the midst of all this, I very stupidly met someone at a friend's wedding........mind you, I was not myself or in any position to be making big life changing decisions such as this.....dating. He was pushing me to hurry up and get the trial over settling. That right there should have been a huge red flag. You know how it is though at 23.....We're just so grown and know everything, etc! Will's family turned on me and disowned me trying to say that I never really loved Will and a whole bunch of other hogwash. I can understand the upset, and I was all they had left of him, so I know that would have been hard had roles been reversed.

Sentencing day came, and I was going to have a chance to say whatever I wanted to him [ the drunk driver who hit us].  It was very difficult, but I knew what I had to do. It came time for me to speak and this is what I said to him as he bawled like a baby......." I don't know where you were the night of the accident, but you do and that's between you and God. Weather you pay for it now, or later, either way you are going to pay for it. The form of your punishment isn't up to me. God loves you as much as He does me.......I don't hate you, and I forgive you. Not because I have to, but because it's the right thing to do and you may have had control over my life for that split second, but I refuse to hang on to a mistake made that I can't change." Every one of his family members gasped loudly at the same time. After the sentencing, his family kept stopping me to thank me and pour out their gratitude. Just because you forgive doesn't mean that you're okay with what happened or forget it, because you can't forget. I wanted to heal, I wanted to be free. This man of course, was about to lose his freedom, but the penalty was light. He was sentenced to three years in prison and he spent the last part of his sentence working on the Governor's mansion. Like I said, its not up to me.

The entire ride home, I felt such a weight lifted from my chest and I just cried the entire way home. It was freeing choosing to forgive and it allowed me to really keep plowing forward to heal emotionally. The next few years were hell and I will share that with you tomorrow! 

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