Two people instantly come to mind when I think of forgiveness My husband and my step-dad.

All through high school, my step-dad (who has now admitted to this, since finding Christ) did everything in his power to make my life harder.

I was already struggling with depression and self-esteem issues because I had just started to really make friends when they decided to get married. We had to move to the other side of the country.

I had an even harder time making friends in California. I didn’t agree with a lot of things my peers were doing, I was extremely shy and just packed on another shell to hide my true self when we moved, and on top of that, my step-dad refused to ever let me leave the house without the rest of the family.

He has changed a lot, but in some ways, he hasn’t. I still have some problems with him, although I’ve learned better, more mature ways to deal with these problems.

I’ve forgiven him for a lot but I am definitely still a long way from the end of that journey. As for my husband, we have just had a LOT off ups and extreme downs. With both people I listed, there was a lot of emotional/psychological abuse as well as small amounts of physical abuse.

That is something that I have always been afraid of and felt I would never be able to forgive someone for.

I CAN’T forgive someone for it.

However, I have given it to God and he can cleanse that from our lives and our minds. Things are not fully resolved, but we are working to eliminate these things and to forgive and leave the past in the past.