Found this a fascinating and heart-warming story about the power of forgiveness. As the story unfolds you see the profound effects on both the forgiver and the forgiven. It is hardly an easy feat to accomplish but for those who are able to truly forgive, the turn the person who caused them so much pain into a force of good.
“It wasn’t violence, it was extreme violence,” he said of killing Julio Jimenez. “None of it was necessary, but that’s what my frame of mind was.”
After six hours of talking, the two men embraced. Carroll was later smiling so hard that he was asked if he had been found suitable for parole.
“Being forgiven for the hurt you caused a family, that took so much weight off my shoulders, like I was soaring on my way back,” he said. “They said, ‘You got found suitable?’ I said, ‘Hey, I got something better than that.’”
On a much smaller scale, at home and at work we have reason to be sore, angry and even furious at others. The reasons could range from trivial to important. The same idea of reaching out to forgive and learn why they did what they did might provide very similar benefits. When a child is out of line, it often helps if they know that they are loved no matter what but the infraction will be addressed. That creates the safe space to talk it over, understand the drivers of the behavior and often the child realizes the error of their way on the owm.
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