Forgive and forget?

The struggle between forgiveness, retribution and vengeance is a confusing lot.

I won't go into details, but someone hurt my husband, and this man was found innocent by a court. I had prayed that this man would be held accountable for his actions, because that only seems fair, right? I was upset at that, but then I remembered the verse that says "vengeance is mine, says the Lord." So I know that this man will be held accountable eventually.

However, forgiveness is another matter. I can pray for this person, and ask that God will use this situation to turn their lives around, but do I want to walk up to him and start a conversation? No. Do I want to act like everything is all right? No. Can I let go and let God? Yes. I'm not sure where the line lies between forgiving and acting like everything is just fine.

I thought, this person deserves to be punished. He doesn't deserve to get off scott free. Then listening to the pastor's sermon yesterday, he pointed out that we don't deserve to get off scott free either.

How many times have I hurt someone? Maybe it hasn't been physically, but I've emotionally injured people by being harsh or criticizing or being downright mean. I don't deserve for them or God to forgive me for those actions, but I have been forgiven. If I have been forgiven, I need to also forgive.

Does that mean I should give up wanting this person to be held accountable? I don't know.

I guess I want to do what's right, but I still want this person to be held accountable. I don't know if this means I'm not completely forgiving or if it's OK to want this person to feel bad about what happened and repent. I mean God asks us to repent, right?

This is one of those blogs where I don't have any answers. I'm just putting it out there that I'm honestly not sure what to do about this issue.

I need to pick back up with my blogging. It's spring, and everything is becoming new again. Why not my blog?