Hope, allows us to reimagine what our relationships can become. Trust, promises to examine trust covenants broken and how trust worthy you appear based upon your actions and not based upon your words.

Forgiveness for violations of trust; lies, cheating, and thefts described by students in our last article “ Discuss the Core Values of Trust,” by Mountain provide vivid detailed information about the thief who in class managed to steal an iPod with a teacher and more than 25 students present…yet neither the teacher nor the other students would identify the thief. All of this happened during the period of time that a student simply went to the bathroom and returned to class.

Another student talked about the lying between his friends and himself regarding where they were going to hang out in what they were going to do.

Another student talked about cheating on his girlfriend by making out with his best friend’s girlfriend. The transgressions violated the trust of the girlfriend and of his best friend whom he dearly wishes to have a relationship with and violated the trust of the girl that he made out with, as he admitted that she wasn’t really that important to him.

There is no timeframe to forgive and forgiveness is not an option. Forgiveness is a required practice. If you choose not to forgive another person it is the same as if you are taking poison and internally creating damage to yourself. The un-forgiveness is a poison to all of us. When we choose not to forgive another person’s transgressions, we are held in bondage by the poison eating away at our insides. Only through forgiveness can we become free and only by becoming free can we let go and move on.

Anger and rage are often the results of resentment, resistance and revenge. Our heart opens and relationships that have been broken can be redeemed. Anger is often the feeling associated when people experience the inability to forgive others and this will result in us practicing the 3R’s. As a result of the transgressions of trust we first experienced resentment. It eats away at us and we move into resistance (rejection, denial) and then as the combination of resentment and resistance eats away at us…we moved straight to revenge. The 3R’s may be the most dangerous words to destroy relationships. The three R’s are: Resentment, Resistance, and Revenge. The only remedy is to forgive those who have wronged us.

Transgressions against trust are as the same as you owing debts. We carry them with us and then you try to collect out of spite and in the spirit of revenge. The danger of not forgiving sets you up for internal destruction. Bitterness and rage are the results of the 3Rs. These will have an effect upon others who are not even involved.

When forgiving the thief of stealing your iPod, computer, or computer game is not about you fixing them. It is about us fixing ourselves. When you have a broken relationship it is like having an empty hole within you. And the only way that you can fill the hole is by adding a W. When you become whole that one single letter changes everything about you. Forgiveness does not set free the liars, cheaters and thieves who violated your trust. Forgiveness does not set free the faculty teacher, or the other 25 classmates who watched the theft and did not stop it. Forgiveness is what sets you free to let go, move on.