Forgiveness

The three most importnat word in the English language, or any language for that matter, are not I love you, but I forgive you.

After all doesn't the Lord's Prayer include forgiveness?

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Eastern Orthodox Version courtesy of Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Prayer

Psalms 32, 51, 86, 103 and several verses in the new testament all mention forgiveness. There's a reason for that.

For further Biblical study these verse can be found at~ http://www.bibleversesite.com/topics/forgiveness.html

But I digress, there's a reason forgiveness is mentioned in the Bible. Personally I don't think forgiveness gets mentioned much anywhere else. Perhaps if it were the world would be a different place. We all, at some point in our lives, say the words I love you. In the beginning to our parents, grandparents or early caregivers. Just for a moment imagine the lives of those who were not told I love you as a child...

Then as we grow older we find that first someone special and with any luck at all we tell them we love them. In time many of us get married and of course we tell our spouse that we love them. You see the pattern, we then tell our children and grandchildren we love them and so on and hopefully the cirlce remains unbroken.

One more side note~ shouldn't we be telling our friends that we love them? As a teacher we should be telling our students, especially the little ones, that we love them. Many times the smaller studetns will tell me that they love me and at times I have a difficult moment in articulating the words I love you back to them. When a child loves you without reserve it is a gift, a rare occurence and the love should be returned in full. I am in no way suggesting that anyone be inapporpriate or misguided in this pursuit but I do suggest letting those closest to us know how we feel.

Which brings me right back to forgiveness...

A dear friend wrote me an e-mail last night which I read this morning and in it he said to forgive him for his use of the word sometimes in reference to a topic that we were discussing. Most people can't say the words I'm sorry let alone I forgive you.

As a teacher I see examples of this all the time with students. Again the smaller children must be taught how to say that they're sorry but usually there is where it ends. Only one more small step further would be for the person being apologized to letting the transgressor know that they have been forgiven. The words I forgive you are very powerful indeed. Much more so than I love you. In todays commercialized market we hear I love a thousand times a day. I love McDonald's, or I love these shoes. How many times a day do we hear I forgive?

For me? Today? Just once... above in the Lord's Prayer. God forgives us, over and over again, and He lets us know that we are forgiven.

So the next time someone takes that giant step of asking for forgiveness, give it to them. Say to that person that you forgive them and then do it. Don't carry the hurt around in your heart, let it go. But that's a topic for another day....

For word searches of the Bible using key words please go to~

http://www.blueletterbible.org/