Anecdotal I know, but I tried for 2 years to forgive someone who had deeply wronged my family, but I simply couldn’t get past feeling like we needed to go to court to make it right and it was eating me up inside.
My wife suggested I ask God to help, which I hadn’t tried and didn’t think it would make a difference but I tried it. And it worked. The next day the anger was just...gone and remains so to this day.
I realize it’s anecdotal and I don’t expect most people to take it seriously but it changed my life.
Reminds me of something my Dad sent me when I was dealing with grief over someone who wronged me. It's from the Alcoholics Anonymous book, but I found the advice worked anyway. Here's the scan from the book:
https://imgur.com/a/XlkPGLp
Thank you for sharing that. The line at the beginning of the last paragraph jumps out at me.
"This great experience that released me from the bondage of hatred and replaced it with love is really just another affirmation of the truth I know..."
Having really experienced hatred first-hand, the nearly obsessive state of ongoing anger...
It bothers me every time I see people toss around the word "hate" with every disagreement or bias that they believe other people have. Without realizing it, these people are minimizing one of the most dangerous internal emotional experiences that we experience as humans by turning it into hyperbole that nobody takes seriously.
My wife suggested I ask God to help, which I hadn’t tried and didn’t think it would make a difference but I tried it. And it worked. The next day the anger was just...gone and remains so to this day.
I realize it’s anecdotal and I don’t expect most people to take it seriously but it changed my life.