Forgive and forget?

When people talk about forgiving and forgetting, they are assuming that everyone will forgive and forget.  But what they don’t realise is that sometimes doing the two is NOT a good or sensible thing to do.

The other day I was asked to forgive and forget the bad way I had been treated by another person.  Fact is, I had already forgiven her because I didn’t want to be angry and frustrated and cause myself more anxiety than I already deal with.  And I KNOW these negative emotions have a bad impact on my body.

But forgetting is another issue entirely.  Forgiving for your own sake is one thing.  Because you know it is better for you and your health to forgive whatever that person has done to you or others.  The person themselves doesn’t NEED to know you have forgiven them because you are not doing so for them.

However, there are situations where you can forgive, but forgetting is NOT always a wise thing to do.  What if the person you are forgiving is behaving in a way that can cause harm not only to yourself, but other innocent people?  

If the one you are meant to forgive and forget will hurt others if you just “forget” what happened, is that right?  Personally, I don’t believe it is.  The fact is, you have knowledge that could protect others if you tell the truth means that you shouldn’t forget.

TREASURE

I can forgive someone for what they have done, for MY own sake/health.  I need to protect not only myself from it happening to me again, but to others also.