Which is easier; to forgive or to forget?

Question

Which is easier; to forgive or to forget?

Answer 1

One should always forgive but never forget. Forgiveness is harder because it's an action you have to work at it. It's a life-long process of remember the thing you forgave them for and then reminding yourself you forgave that person and not letting whatever it is happen again or hurt you again in the same way.

So it's easier to Forget, but one must always Forgive.

Answer 2

To forget is easier. A person needs to let go of a lot of pride to forgive someone and its not always easy. Any idiot could forget something; amnesia can do that for a person too. I wouldnt exactly call "forgetting" the hardest thing in the world.

Answer 3

forgetting........

Answer 4

genuine forgiveness can be very difficult and, in many cases, very painful.... I am not certain that forgetting is possible. Forgetting is not a requirement for forgiveness. Nor is trust, or continued association with the one forgiven.... God only requires His people(those of The True Christian Faith) to Forgive

If you are not one of God's people then you might be placing more of a burden upon yourself regarding forgiveness than you should... however it is good for any one to forgive... it is better than stewing in your own juices the rest of your life...

Answer 5

I would say that it is easier to forgive than forget. You see Satan has a way of bringing things back up to the surface we need to pray each and every time Satan uses this tool to try to get us to give up our Faith.

Answer 6

The easier one is forgiving...I say this because in the book of Revelation it says that the Lord will wipe every tear from every eye (REv:7:17) ...I believe this verses speaks about deep spiritual wounds we have received that we can't forget!

Also I would like to add that we should try to forget the wounds, past sins as they do hinder our growth and can become a real stumbling block in our walk with God...See:In Philippians, chapter 3, Paul explains, “one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13, 14).  Paul wouldn't let anything stand in the way of him pressing on for God.Look at verse 8 where Paul declares, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.”

Though Paul identifies with Christ, Paul understands that he is no longer what he used to be, he also understands that he is not yet what he ought to be. Though Paul has become like Christ on one level, he has an appreciation for the prevailing distance between his nature and the nature of Christ.

Paul will soon launch into a metaphor of an athlete in a race, but before he does that he articulates his need to lay aside some “rubbish” that has accumulated. Paul understands what we must understand: Gaining the fullness of Christ will require our singular attention.  

This promise  of God wiping away every tear is so beautiful to us and deserves to be remembered.  Also this promise speaks to me about the love of God and helps me in forgiving others.  Thanks for the question and allowing me to share!  God Bless! :)

Answer 7

if you do one you don't have to do the other.

Answer 8

Boy....there are some doozy questions on here lately!!

Okay.....We must learn to be able to forgive in earnestness and with everyone.  The Bible states that "We are to forgive others as God has forgiven us".  Unfortuneately, we are not wired to forget.  Everything that takes place in our days and hours are recorded, cross-indexed and copied.  Therefore we as humans are not able to forget, remember that as you study.

Try this experiment;  Take a text book and open it to any page and read quietly to yourself, then write down what you read, don't cheat here, by looking back at the page as you write.

Next; Give the book to someone else, have them read the same page as well, only this time they must read it out loud.  Reading out loud for one paragraph and then stopping, f**t around for a couple of minutes (NOT literally here) and then ask them to write down what they read.

You will notice that they retained more than you did...........!!!  Why???

They used more than one sense at every moment they were reading, same information as you, but more data to be cross-indexed and copied in their brain, hence more data can be recalled.  Neat, right???

God is the only one that can forgive and then forget.

Answer 9

Can't remember....  

Answer 10

Forgetting is easier, especially if you employ the use of alcohol!

Forgiving is quite difficult, and I could never do it without divine help.

Answer 11

I think it would be foolish to forget and there have been a couple of situations in my life that have caused so much damage and pain that I struggle to forgive.  Jesus is helping with with that because I know it to be my flaw.

Answer 12

It is probably, in most cases much easier to forget than to forgive. However, it is much better to forgive but never forget.  

Answer 13

forget...It is hard for human beings to forget a slight even if they have forgiven the person.  

Answer 14

True forgiving is hard. Never forget or you could place yourself in the same situation.  

Answer 15

To forgive, I don't think that we ever forget.

Answer 16

to forget,      I NEVER Forgive.

Answer 17

forgive

Answer 18

forgive.you shouldn't really forget or you may get burned again.unlike the lord he forgets your sin bottom of the sea as far as the east is from the west.

Answer 19

As i study the bible daily now! I find that it is now easier to forgive as it is the command from my Lord and savior Jesus!

Answer 20

It depends on the offense....but I find that it is a little easier to forgive...I'm a virgo and never forget offensive actions against me or those close to me.

Answer 21

Forget. forgiveness take work, mental and spiritual, and sometime we never forgive ourselves.

Answer 22

It easier to forgive but never forget.  

Answer 23

If you don't forget, does it mean you truly forgave?  

If you forget, doesn't that mean you forgave them since it matters to you no longer?

Answer 24

one must never forget.

Answer 25

I can forgive but I cannot forget ,is just another way of saying that I cannot forgive.I personally believe that both are the steps of one big process i.e.'forgiveness'

Answer 26

forgive you will always remember which helps us not to repeat it.

Answer 27

You can forgive, but you should never, ever forget.

Otherwise, you are likely to put yourself in the same situation or become a doormat.

Answer 28

To forget. I can forgive, but I rarely forget.

Answer 29

I think forgetting is easier.