I've been scammed. Have you? Have you been made to feel victimized by a company or individual with unscrupulous business practices? I have been thinking about my responses to my situation and praying about it. I may have allowed the scammer to get the better of me and I cannot allow that to continue. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying to not to try to get your money back or to just let them get away with it. But how I respond to them can determine how I feel about myself, how I treat others, including those people closest to me, and how I will approach business transactions in the future. The one thing that has become so important to me now is my need to forgive those who have wronged me. It is a matter of attitude. I can continue to feel like a victim or I can rise above the situation and come through this victorious, despite how much money I may have lost. If I allow myself to become jaded or bitter, I will project a negative attitude that can spill over into all aspects of my life. If can affect my job, my relationships, my sense of worth. I can get angry and depressed. And I would have every right to be. But its not about my rights, its about wether or not I allow someone to steal from me, not only my money, but also my joy and peace of mind. It is so easy to let it all bring me down. But what is the result. When I try to get my money back, if I approach them with anger and frustration and threats, how open will that make them to listening to my concerns and working to achieve a solution. It will instead make them want to hang up on me and push me aside. But if I can approach them calmly and with respect (wether I feel they deserve it or not) and talk to them the way I want them to talk to me, then I will have better success in my dealings with them. And if I cannot reach an agreement with them, or get my money refunded, and see there is nothing else to be done, then I need to determine within myself to let it go and go on with my life. Holding on to the hurt, to the feelings of anger and frustration and even fear (fear of being cheated again, fear of being rejected, fear of loosing), will only hurt me. I must realize that my continuing to feel this way does not affect them in the least. So I need to let it go. That is where forgiveness comes in. Forgiveness does not mean that I did not learn a lesson from this or that I like to be cheated or lied to. I hate being lied to. Forgiveness means that I will not continue to allow this incident to control how I feel or to affect my future. I release it. I will not hold to the negativity. I give it all away. It will no longer be my problem. So forgive. I forgive you Ivory Brites. I forgive you MaxWhite Teeth. And I forgive myself for allowing myself to be taken or tricked into the scam in the first place. We need to forgive ourselves - for our gullibility, for our naiveté. So, have you been scammed? Me too. Forgive them. Forgive yourself. Get your money back if you can and then let it go. You will be the better for it.