How to Really Forgive

4 Empowering Principles That Will Help You Bury the Hatchet

Photo by Skitterphoto

The concept of “burying the hatchet” is a helpful image of forgiveness.

I can imagine an Indian chief and a Colonel in the U.S. Cavalry meeting upon a hill on the southern plains. The Native American wielding his tomahawk and the officer, his pistol.

Both parties represent warring factions that have been inflicting wounds upon the other for years.

But the moment has come for peace.

This is why the ceremony upon the hill would be such a critical factor in the process. After all, simply shouting I forgive you across the valley would accomplish little.

Words tend to be cheap and easily spoken.

But actions.

We even have a saying, “Actions speak more loudly than words.”

This is why the burying of the hatchet is such a visually appropriate image forgiveness. The Indian chief buries what he could use against his rival and the officer buries his own instrument of death which could be used against the tribe.

The power of forgiveness that leads to peace does not merely rest in the words “I forgive you,” but with the actual burial of the offense.