​Forgiveness, while challenging, is a powerful tool for healing and growth. In today’s lesson, I want to teach you 10 strategies to help you forgive others and find peace.

Forgiveness is not about condoning harmful behavior or forgetting what happened to you. It's about releasing the grip that anger and resentment have on you, allowing you to move forward with a lighter heart.

Now, let’s get into this lesson.

​I don’t know many leaders who have encountered the hell I endured and immediately said to themselves afterwards, “I’m so glad I went through all that.” 

In fact, the natural tendency is to put up guardrails around our hearts when offenses arise; to hold enough grudges against hurtful people so we are constantly reminded never to trust them again; or to keep the oppressive thoughts lingering in our minds so we never feel the need to move forward again.

​For months now, I have preached this message in my Twitter Class to my Beloved audience, urging them to take their focus away from the political chaos and find themselves wholly dependent on God the Holy Spirit.

But what does it mean to stay hidden in the Kingdom of God?

At the time, Trump had encountered several political attacks, none more pressing than his multiple arrests and the eventual attempted assassination at his rally.

In response to the events, one word pressed forth vehemently during his campaign: vengeance. Several articles pointed towards this message.

When I became privy to it during the 2024 campaign, I responded with, “We don’t vote for a vengeful government. We vote for a just one.” I continued pushing that message on Twitter, knowing his camp and those within the higher political echelon watched my work.
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Within a short time, Trump’s camp adjusted its message, declaring, “[Trump’s] revenge will be [the nation’s] success.” In other words, rather than taking vengeance against the people who tried destroying him, he would focus on the country’s economic and social success.

​In the Beginning, this was so. When God observed Abel’s sacrifice as more acceptable than Cain’s, the eldest brother sought vengeance against his sibling. That vengeance, which was deeply rooted in hatred, resulted in Cain murdering his brother. From a spiritual and psychological perspective, we can see the direct correlation between extreme bitterness, extreme anger, extreme hatred, and murder.

1 John 3:15 (AMP) alluded to this phenomenon when the writer declared, “Everyone who hates (works against) his brother [in Christ] is [at heart] a murderer [by God’s standards]; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Again, at the root of all murders is extreme hatred towards a person. Therefore, to combat a spiritual, mental problem, we must exercise a spiritual, mental solution.

​Politics has always been a divisive topic, and obviously so when we consider how power is wielded based on which ideology controls the political landscape.

Growing up, I’ve always been Evangelical. In our space, we do not separate politics from our Christian religion. We are primarily Republican. Our unique characteristics, however, are often shaped by race and ethnicity. Given this fact, I’ve always identified as a Black Republican and a Conscious Black Conservative.

​She briefly exhorted on the power of forgiveness and how we can know for certainty when we have accomplished what often seems like an insurmountable feat.

Forgiving people who hurt us is often the most challenging task because our human, carnal mind equates forgiveness with giving the offender a pass to offend us again. In other words, many of us hold onto grudges as a defense mechanism; and when spiritual leaders tell us to forgive those who harmed us, we take their wisdom the wrong way. We assume they want us to allow offenders to perpetually harm us as a sign of “spiritual growth and maturity.”

As I listened to Darlin’s forgiveness message, I could feel anxiety rising within me. At the time, I had just left a tumultuous, abusive marriage and had recently won a criminal case that nearly broke my heart, my spirit, and my bank account. Everything around me screamed, “None of these people deserve your forgiveness, just your wrath.” Yet here I was, listening to Darlin deliver this timely word.

​We can look at the story of Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob, and see this message clearly. After being raised by his father, Joseph developed keen spiritual insight (the gift of dream interpretation) and practical administrative abilities that marked him for greatness among his brothers. His father taught him how to know the God of Abraham and Isaac; not only that, but Jacob gave Joseph intellectual, leadership training that later proved influential to his rise as a future Egyptian leader, second only to Pharaoh.

But this favoritism also marked Joseph in ways he could not fully understand himself. His brothers grew increasingly jealous and hostile towards him because of this favor. They plotted to kill him; they threw his body in a ditch to die; and they eventually sold him into Egyptian slavery, profiting from Joseph’s demise. The young man was only 17 years old when his life took this dramatic turn.