I was thinking of what I could add to this blog and no words were really coming to mind. Then I looked at the website again and realized that it clearly says from abuse to Alzheimer’s, a tale of forgiveness……and so I decided to take a break from the Alzheimer’s posts and talk a little about abuse and forgiveness. The abuse in this case was child abuse, more specifically my son. He was shaken by his babysitter when he was 18 months old and that single incident changed me and my family forever. It’s a long story and I only have so many words to use here so I am going to focus on the forgiving part of the story. I was raised in church and taught to forgive as Jesus forgave us, well that is easier said than done. But I knew I had to, not for her but for me. Holding on to that level of anger is unhealthy. I will also add that forgiving that sitter took me almost 10 years, like I said easier said than done. There are still days when I get angry and then I go to lunch with my son, who by the way is 26 now and is an amazing human and I am reminded that that moment does not define me. I decided early on that it would not define my son so I pushed and prodded him to go above and beyond what the doctors said he could do. So today I focus on him, on the journey we travelled together and how he overcame all odds and the angry moments fade into the background. If you find yourself in a position of needing to forgive, have grace, take your time, it is not a sprint, like most things in life it’s two steps forward and three steps back. But eventually you get there, you won’t forget and you may still have a little bitterness slip in from time to time but that’s ok, that is what makes us human.
