In Search Of Heroes Spreads Good News About Everyday, Real-Life Heroes Who Deserve Recognition For Their Good Works

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, in our lives we come across a lot of people, people even in our own family, who upset, offend, and oppose us. How important is forgiveness and forgiving those who upset, offend, and oppose us?

Len Thurmond: Forgiveness is a strange thing; it’s a strange concept even. When you are truly hurt by something, you’re scarred. I don’t believe there’s anybody who can truthfully deny that. So what is forgiveness? Do you ever really forgive those who really hurt you? I don’t think so.

Len Thurmond: I think somewhere down deep you never truly forgive them. But there is acceptance. You don’t want to hurt them; you don’t want to get back at them; there’s no retribution involved. It’s acceptance. But forgiveness, I’m not really sure that it is a reality. I don’t really think there is forgiveness.

Len Thurmond: Jesus may have said to forgive, but I’m not sure that he didn’t mean accept. I don’t think you can truly forgive. Forgive means that it’s okay, and it was never okay. It will never be okay that you hurt me. It will never be okay, I’m sorry. That’s just the way it is.

Len Thurmond: But to say, “I can accept that you did it and I will not hold it against you any longer. I will love you anyway,” that’s acceptance. That’s not forgiveness. I think there’s a fine line there. This silliness of, “It’s okay;” it’s not okay.

Len Thurmond: We’re going to get hurt through our whole lives. It’s going to happen. People always stand in your way. I think a lot of it is that it’s really an understanding of where they’re coming from. People who stand in your way and tell you that you can’t do something, that you’ll never be able to do that, or what’s the matter with you, go get a job, whatever the situation happens to be, are people who have no self reliance of their own. They don’t believe in themselves, and if they can’t do it then you certainly can’t.

Len Thurmond: And they can’t give you the benefit of the doubt, so it’s their problem really; it’s not yours. In those kinds of hurting situations, I don’t think it’s a matter of forgiveness. I think it’s a matter of accepting that it’s their problem. You have to just say, “I’m not going to let them keep me in my place because they can’t get out of theirs.” That’s really what it comes down to.

Len Thurmond: And the real hurts, the ones that scar us to the bone, as I said, I don’t think there’s really ever any forgiveness. There’s acceptance and I think that’s where love comes in. You have to love them enough at some point to let go of the anger. But the forgiveness I don’t think really exists.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, do you experience service to others as a source of joy?

Len Thurmond: There again, service. What does that mean? Do I like to see people happy for things that I do for them? Absolutely. I was here when you interviewed Donna. Donna said she enjoyed that spark she saw in people’s eye, that “aha” moment.

Len Thurmond: I do too. I can’t agree with her more. I live for those moments of clarity. It’s not when you’re trying to teach somebody how to make a web site or something and they say, “Aha!” It’s the inside moments where they suddenly realize, “I can do this!” It’s where they suddenly gain a measure of self confidence in themselves in those little things.

Len Thurmond: All those little pieces of self confidence build up to become an “I can do anything” at some point, so those are the victories. If that’s service to others, then absolutely, I live for that.

Len Thurmond: I was a math whiz when I was in school. It was the only subject I liked and I barely made it through anything else, but there was something about math that just intrigued me. It was such an exact science and everything was always the way it was going to be, and there was nothing you could do to change it. I used to love to come up with theories and theorems that would blow my teachers away. They were totally different than what they had taught me to arrive at the same place.

Len Thurmond: They would teach me to do multiplication and division one way and I would do it the other way. I would multiply from the left to the right instead of the right to the left. Just because I enjoyed it, it was fun to play with those kinds of things.

Len Thurmond: But my two girls have a problem with math. Their mother is not really good at math and I guess they inherited that, I don’t know. But to see the look in their eye when I can explain something in a different way that it suddenly just makes sense and they can say, “Oh, I get it!” They were thinking they can’t do this, and now they know they can. So that self confidence is built up and it shows in all of their school work.

Len Thurmond: Now they know that if they can just understand it, if somebody can just explain it the right way, then they can do it and there’s no question in their minds. That’s self confidence. It’s those moments that make my life worthwhile whether it’s with my clients, with people I’m coaching, friends whom I’m trying to help or explain something to, family members, whatever.

Len Thurmond: If that’s service, then, absolutely, I live for that. I don’t see it as service. I see it as necessity. I see it as that’s what life is about and that’s what we’re here for.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design