Seek justice instead When someone does something bad to us, we don’t have lots of options. We either have to pay back with ‘eye for an eye and tooth for tooth’, or honorably forgive them by letting them walk scotch free like nothing ever happened.
Seek justice instead
When someone does something bad to us, we don’t have lots of options. We either have to pay back with ‘eye for an eye and tooth for tooth’, or honorably forgive them by letting them walk scotch free like nothing ever happened. There is no third option. I find that quite sad.
I have always thought that forgiveness is good, just as our saviour commanded us to forgive, ‘seventy seven times seven times.’ Personally, I believe the master’s words, forgiveness is the more honorable thing to do.
However, we have to ask ourselves. How practical is forgiveness in our world today? How easy is it? The first reaction we have whenever we’ve been wronged is, "I must teach that fool a lesson?”
Human nature has taught me that everybody wants to quench their anger by ravaging whatever made them bitter. They will want to tear, pay back, break, and sometimes even kill the object of their anger.
Revenge is sweet they say, but only for a few seconds. When you realize that you’ve lowered your morals to those of your assailant’s, then you start feeling guilty for your actions.
In a particular context, you can make your assailant pay back without revenging, but still make them pay. This is by suing them.
Pay back without revenging is better because revenge in itself doesn’t satisfy. If there was no bitterness and guilt that followed after a course of revenge, then it would have been fair, but that’s not the case.
If someone did something so terrible to you with irreparable consequences and you feel like they deserve to be paid in full measure. I’m with you on that one! I mean, if you let them walk away, you will stay in the ruin they created while they go on and have a great life. Don’t let them walk away and most importantly, don’t forget!
Instead of taking matters in your own hands through vengeance, you can make them pay fully by reporting them to higher authorities, so that the law can determine their punishment.
It’s a matter of irresponsibility when you "forgive and forget” because what you don’t know is that the person who harmed you could do it again, or to your family or neighbor. The best thing to do is, to report them to higher authorities, or if it’s hard to prove, use some personal means to see to it that they never do it again.
For example, if the person is a habitual disturber of your peace, instead of just letting go, you could threaten them, confront them just to make them understand that you are worse than them, or better still, you could call up a few buddies and scare the guy away.