When people use the lessons learned and the precepts of A Course In Miracles, they find that they come to a new understanding of forgiveness. They are able to study and learn why you hurt yourself and others when you do not forgive.
This is why it is so important that when another person hurts you, you must forgive. Often we hear someone say, “I can never forgive him/her for this.” Oh, but they must! The one who needs to forgive is affected just as much as the one who needs to be forgiven, if not more deeply! You can forgive the wrongdoer whether he asks for forgiveness or not. By doing so, the pain that the person caused you will be lifted from you and you can be freed from any anger and negative emotions. This will be the first of the miracles that is granted and obtained by the power of forgiveness learned from A Course In Miracles.
One ACIM student describes their own need to forgive and what they learned. This is their story:
“Many years ago, in what seems like another lifetime, I was hurt deeply by the man who had promised before God and witnesses to love me until death would some day part us. He did not keep that oath. In the beginning, we were happy and we settled into a comfortable married life. I thought everything was fine. I found out differently when I discovered the first of what would turn out to be several extra-marital affairs. At first, I was angry and refused to forgive and nothing went right for me during that time. It was when I used the lessons to forgive and change my thinking that my own life changed and I realized that these feelings were of my own making and my disrupted life was something that I could change.”