Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him;
and if he repents, forgive him. "And if he sins against you seven times a
day, and returns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' forgive him. Luke 17:3-4
Jesus spoke a
couple of times about forgiving your brother. This doesn’t literally include
ONLY your brother by blood, but your Christian brother also. The point isn’t
WHO is my brother…just forgiveness.
Seventy times seven is 490 times, even just seven times—that is a lot of
forgiving—more transgressions than anyone wants to track. I think that Jesus
was suggesting here that we should never
stop forgiving. Why is it so hard to forgive those who offend or hurt us? If we
don’t forgive, bitterness will fill us and block our relationship with God and
with others. Bitterness only poisons the one who is feeling it. It is your
choice to be bitter or to be better—letting go of the hurt and forgiving the
situation.
Training Tip – Do your kids know what forgiveness is? I’m sure
that you make them tell each other that they are sorry when they hurt each
other, but does the one who was hurt say, “I forgive you?” Make sure they
understand that concept.
Take out a
bag of dried beans or peas and have your children start counting out 490. Then
explain that each bean represents how many times they need to forgive their
brother, sister, or friend who has hurt them. That is a lot of forgiveness.
Discuss that Jesus didn’t mean for us to keep track, counting all the times we
are hurt—just to forgive.
Lord, help me to forgive those who offend or hurt
me. I lay these hurts at Your feet, giving them to You. The people and the
offences don’t hurt me anymore. Thank you for taking away the hurt.
All
scripture quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) unless otherwise
noted.
© 2013 by Mickey
M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.
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