You forgive to help yourself, not them. You see them as imperfect. But you do not forget. you do not trust again until the person deserves it. you do not enable. you do not let them repeat the behavior.
forgiveness is about giving up resentment that poisons ourselves. It takes time. I worked for a church for 7 years, and my goal was to learn to forgive faster...
I let things go much faster than I used to,
but I let the people who hurt me "go" just as fast now. I don't have to be anyone's doormat.
And if someone says something that hurts me? I say "OW" right to their face. It usually surprises them...people think they can say anything with no consequences.
as for our addicts stealing, after the first time, we should know better and then we have to learn to forgive ourselves.
that is even harder for me.

Forgiveness is a journey, that only time truly is your assistant. I don't really know if I ever have forgiven my son, or if time just helped to forget the pain. I am smarter today, I am stronger, and if I take my mind back to the throes of my sons addiction all the negative feelings resurface, so for me it is a journey.

I think for me I have never gotten angry at my son, my sister for their addictions..but for their actions when "high".

For me I would keep my distance for a while....(time) as someone mentioned..until I was able to re-enter the relationships with some boundaries to ensure the disrupting behavior did not re-occur.

This is something that I am struggling with. I realize that forgiveness helps me more than anything but I have trouble forgetting. It takes all of my energy not to get angry sometimes. If anyone has any tips please let me know.

Sadly, I am not even sure what forgiveness is.....all I know is: what ever lessons I am supposed to learn are difficult ones!
But every once in a while I think to myself " I am a strong and awesome person."

struggling with this really bad right now. I cant forgive and let go of all the hurt he has caused me. Why does it seem like he needs to suffer and have to suffer concequences for his actions and his lying and his addiction? I have suffered for so long and he just gets to wake up get recovery and walk back into my life like nothing happened? How is that fair? I have been drug through mud and crapped on. Eh, I am just full of anger right now

in my experience i have learnt to forgive by just letting go of it. to hold on to it only hurt me, it didnt hurt the person inwhich i had a problem with. altho i forgave and let go of it, it didnt mean that i forgot.
Resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
It is not easy but gets easier to do over time.

what has been done to us is something we never deserved, was wrong and extremely hurtful and harmful. I wish I never had to protect myself from this but unfortunately this came into my path in life.
I know I must protect myself with whatever boundaries I need--I feel that is my responsibility. I main things that help me as far as forgiveness goes is as others have stated - it is mostly for my benefit and the fact that this a disease that alters their brain, spirit, and body. I will not forget but I don't want their sickness to have power over me.
This is not easy but helps so much to know others understand and have felt the same feelings.

Sometimes I like to think about this in terms of "letting go" rather than forgiveness. We can choose to "let go" of hurts and resentments so that we can move on without the weight of these. We do this for our own healing, not for the people who have hurt us.

I think it's about the definition of forgiveness, that it's a release of the continual bounce of the emotional charge, not an imposed denial or giving in to revisionist history.
So hard and isolating if you're trapped in wishing that someone else would change.
Ultimately maybe it's a mixture of compassion and healthy boundaries.
I don't think it can be more than that without accountability.

Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.
It doesn't mean you forget about what the other person did - but you accept that it happened - and let it go. You can stop dwelling on it.
You can't change the past. Forgiveness allows you to move forward.

It doesn't happen instantly, unless you're lucky. It takes some time to forgive someone. But it's worth it.

I believe the first step is choosing forgiveness. Saying to yourself every chance you get. Choosing to let go of resentment and anger and be happy for your blessings.

If you believe in God, I suggest praying on it. At the same time you need to take care of yourself. So the things they make you happy and apart from the person you are forgiving.

I know I've often drown in my own pitty pot because, out of anger, I found myself blaming those that disrupted my for all of my circumstances. When I stopped blaming others and took charge of my life, it became easier to work towards forgiveness. I needed it for peace of mind for myself.

Anger, hate, & resentment are such poisonous emotions and cloud your brain from being happy. That is why forgiveness is your gift to yourself.

It doesn't mean that the other person is getting away with anything or that toy are saying their actions are fine. It doesn't even mean that toy won't be triggered into sadness and hurt still. It just means you won't allow yourself to hate and resent that person any longer.

I wish you the best in your journey towards forgiveness.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/forgiveness/art-20047692?pg=2