Forgiving’s Reward: The Power to Overcome the Pain Caused by Others

By Michele A. Bryant-Roberts

For forty years Michele Roberts has been on the journey of understanding relationships. This book on forgiving is one that will both fortify the strength you have to rekindle old relationships and release those who have wronged you in the past. You may never see him/her again, but you can be freed to walk into new connections because you have been empowered by forgiving. Ask Michele, she knows.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669866411

Michele A. Bryant-Roberts

Michele A. Bryant-Roberts has been a professional writer since 2008. Her love of words and the psychology behind human interaction inspires what she writes and talks about. Many of her writings have been used in other people’s books and speeches as a ghostwriter, but she shows here that she has plenty to go around. She is the mother of two adult sons, and she has been the wife of Earlie A. Roberts III for forty years. A transplant from New York City, she has enjoyed the comforts of the South for over thirty years. She has been a leader in ministry for over thirty-two years.

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Copyright © 2023 by Michele A. Bryant-Roberts.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

All scripture references are quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 02/08/2023

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter One

What is Forgiving?

Chapter Two

How to Recognize When to Forgive

Chapter Three

Deciding to Forgive

Chapter Four

Forgiving God

Chapter Five

Forgiving Yourself

Chapter Six

Reconciliation

Chapter Seven

Moving Forward

Chapter Eight

Conclusion

Afterword

Dedicated to all those who caused

me to know that I needed to

Forgive.

Introduction

I believe that reading and writing is the answer to all the problems of education. If you can read you can study a text and nearly teach yourself many subjects. This is the same conviction I have about forgiving. I believe forgiving connects you to all the peace and freedom offered on this earth. Forgiving is a universal truth that spreads its rewards to everyone who will use it.

I know a lady who holds a grudge against her mother who has been dead for fifteen years. Based on how she was raised, the young lady cannot reconcile that her believing mother could have been so unloving. For this reason she rejects the religion of her mother. Her mother’s devotion to the things of God was only manifested outside of her home. There was little to no affection and the mother equated parenting to maintaining the physical wellbeing of her children. This daughter despised the emotional disconnect and made that clear by not living the life of a believer. With all of her mother’s encouragement to live right the daughter did not see her upbringing as being so right. Living as a hypocrite is the way that she describes her mother. What kind of god was her mother offering her? Why should she forgive her mother or worship this god? But, the grudge is keeping her from being free. She now exhibits much of the same attributes she hated about her mother. She has the power to give herself peace and freedom by forgiving a mother who treated her unkindly. Forgiving can be reciprocal in and of itself; you forgive and you receive. This lady’s grudge is keeping her separated from the full life of an emancipated believer and causing her to repeat what she so despises; she withholds love and continues the harsh legacy of her mother.

You cannot live your life trying not to do the same things that those who hurt you did. Those are most likely the things that you are destined to repeat. The offender offended you and in turn you are offending others. You have not even recognized this in the way you handle other relationships. Swinging the pendulum all the way to the right is just as bad as it swinging all the way to the left. Two wrongs do not equal a right. You cannot will yourself to do something using a method other than what has been established. This is not how life works. The very thing you hate is what you will find yourself doing. This writing is a step to show you how to live a life free from the pain of your past and receiving the inner strength not to repeat it. You do not have to try so hard to be right. God has made a way of escape. He just wants you to run to Him and let Him help you. You cannot correct your past, but you can give yourself a better future with the power to free yourself from the burden of a painful past.

The ugly that has adhered to