Recently I've read a case-studies in cognitive psychology book, and am currently reading "Generation WTF", by Christine Whelan. Techically, its a self-help book. I came across a friend who was reading it and liked the description on the cover.
The thing is, that sometimes I find reading self-help books to be frustrating, because I find that I already do much of what is recommended, only to have it thwarted by circumstances beyond my control - and usually those circumstances involve certain people in my life, who I then must try not to be angry at, because anger is a negative emotion.
Reading the self-help books makes me angrier at these people, because I feel I acted in the "officially" correct way, so why did these people act as they did? I know I should be happy with myself for acting correctly, instead of focusing on the actions of others - but what if those actions have a profound impact on your life? How do you forgive people who don't apologize and continue to repeat their mistakes?
I always was awed - still am - by God's infinite capacity for forgiveness. He forgives us every year, despite our repeating our mistakes or our lack of true contrition, because of Her immense mercy and kindness, which is beyond human language and beyond human comprehension.
Part of tzelem Elokim is that we must find the Divine within us, and emulate God in His attributes of forgveness, kindness, and mercy, but this is so much easier said than done.
If anyone has thoughts on forgiveness, please feel free to share. I'd love to hear from you and value your input.
Let us all have anger-free days.
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