Healing Letter Exercise

   Okay so I have been acknowledging lately things that happened in my life that have made me feel and do the things I have. So one of my biggest problems is that someone very close to me hurt me years ago. I'm just now going back to that part in my life, and realizing it has had such an effect on me these past years. It has hurt my relationship with my husband, and has hurt my trust in certain people.

   I know in my heart I need to find forgiveness because this is the ONE thing that is really blocking me and stopping me from really moving on in my life, in me and my husbands relationship. Its the biggest hurdle yet. I have been crying so much lately because I am finally opening up and acknowledging the hurt is has cause me, when I just tried to push it away. Now its back with a  vengeance and I am really just trying to live through it and find that forgiveness even though I don't know how. But I pray and I pray for it.

  One thing I came across in a prayer booklet I have is called a HEALING LETTER EXERCISE. So I thought this may be able to help me push past that hurt and pain and find forgiveness in my heart. I am willing to give it a try so I can move forward in my life. I hope others will try it as well. NO ONE deserves to live with a hurt and pain like this.

 

HEALING LETTER EXERCISE

 

1.    Spend some time in prayer and ask the Lord to bring up any unresolved emotional wounds that may be allowing evil to enter your life, or attack your health. If the Lord brings to mind some people who have hurt you, ask the Holy Spirit to bring back the fullness of your repressed emotions, so that you can be set free.
2.    After you identify a hurtful past even that needs healing, try to separate the situation from everything else that has happened to you. Instead of trying to work through years of emotional abuse at one time, try to isolate one experience and keep working on the situation until it is resolved.
3.    Begin the exercise from a prayerful and meditative state of mind. Find a quiet place where you can be alone with the Lord. Make sure you have plenty of tissues and the necessary writing supplies.
4.    Picture the person who hurt you in your imagination. Imagine that person can hear everything you are about to say. If the person is deceased, picture them in heaven standing next to Jesus.
5.    Begin writing your letter with the words, I am angry because you hurt me! Tell this person all the ways that he or she has hurt you by his or her careless and disrespectful actions. Keep writing the words I'm angry, over and over again. Don't worry about spelling or grammar; just release everything that needs to be said.
6.    After you vent all your anger, move on to any fears that you may have experienced. How has this person affected your life? Describe how the consequences of his or her careless actions have carried forward into your present -day relationships.
7.     After you vent any fears or guilty feelings, get in touch with your sadness. Tell this person what you wanted to happen that didn't. If you're writing to your father say, I'm sad because I wanted a better relationship with you. I wanted you to treat me like a beloved son or daughter. I wanted your love and support.
8.     Conclude your letter with anything else you need to say to this person, and then begin a new letter by picturing the person who hurt you in a completely healed state. Picture them in heaven standing next to Jesus. Imagine this person full of God's love and because they are full of God's love, allow them to offer you an apology.
9.     Start your apology letter by saying, I'm so sorry for hurting you. You didn't deserve to be treated like that. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. Write down all the loving words that you need to hear.
10.     Conclude your apology letter with prayer. Release the person who hurt you into the Lord's hands. Ask Jesus to wash away any negativity that you may have picked up by accepting this person's abuse. Surrender this person to the Lord, and if appropriate, ask Jesus to break all unhealthy soul-ties.
11.     Allow Jesus to speak to you through a closure letter. Accept the Lord's love and forgiveness. Allow the Lord's love and forgiveness to flow into your hear and cleanse you of all curses, resentment and negativity.
12.     Ask the Lord to show you if there's anything else that you need to release. Allow yourself to fall into the Lord's arms and be permanently set free- free to be the child of God the Lord intended you to be.

 

 

I have been acknowledging all these hurtful feelings and I know when the time is right I will ask my husband to take the kids and bring them to play at the park or something so I can be alone with God and truly be able to get that hurt and pain out. This is something I need to do for me because I have been living in this torment for years and I have not been able to have a full relationship with my husband, and I have not been able to trust fully.

 

This person will never know the hurt and affect they caused me by their careless actions and disregard of my feelings and the effect they would have on my life. And I can't even be around them any more, hug them or look them in the eye. But I have been trying for so long to forgive and I need to find it so I can live my life to the fullest.