Raising kids is a battle.
Teaching the importance of being able to forgive can sometimes be difficult.
Sometimes, I wish I had the ability to forgive as a kid.
My son Connor does not like to apologize.
When we tell him in a stern voice you need to apologize, he will get a mean look on his face, usually cross his arms and in a mean way say, "I'm Sorry!"
At this point we have to tell Connor to have better behavior then we can usually get a better response out of him.
Usually Connor fights with his siblings.
Pretty easy to do when you are around each other that much.
I still wish I have the ability to forgive like my kids.
They might be mad while they do it, but one minute later, they are fine.
They play together, they are close again.
There is no grudge.
Why is it, instead of being easier to forgive other people as we get older, it gets harder?
Some people live on drama.
You can see it on their Facebooks and how they live their lives.
Why does it get harder to forgive as we get older instead of the other way around?
Jesus talks about repentance in Luke 17:3-4…
"So watch yourselves. If a brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying 'I repent,' you must forgive them."
There is a little process here, you have to go to them and tell them what they did to wrong you.
If they are apologetic you must forgive them.
As adults we have trouble forgiving adults.
Part of this reason, we don't like to admit when we are wrong.
We think we are right and they are wrong all the time.
I had some people that have been very deceitful in my young life.
I can think of one time in particular when I went to the person and told them the wrong they did, they told me it wasn't their problem.
To this day, I having trouble forgiving and showing love to that person.
They would never admit they did anything wrong.
Now there are other times that I did go to people and they did admit their fault and we were able to move on.
There have been times in my life, I was wrong.
People came up to me and told me I did something that was hurtful to them.
I had to apologize and tell them it was my fault.
I had to seek forgiveness and they did forgive.
We were able to move on.
Jesus is telling us we need to be forgiving people.
Forgiving of the wrong we have done to other people.
This requires us to pack up our pride and move on.
Are you holding grudges against someone?
If so, at what point are you going to get rid of that grudge.
Grudges can be a lot to carry.
Why do we carry them if it can be easy to let them go?
Are you ready to move on in your life?
Who can you show forgiveness too?
Who do you need to ask forgiveness from?
Have a great day.
