I am not a perfect mom. I snap at times. I yell, I roll my eyes, I sigh. I sometimes ignore a child because I’m busy at the moment. I’m not perfect. I try and I’d say I’m a pretty good mom, but I definitely have my moments.
But you know what? Children are so forgiving. I may be a complete yelling, sighing, eye rolling mess before naps, but when they wake up, it’s like it never happened. They want to snuggle, they’re happy, they want to be close to me and play.
To a child, being close to their parents is far more important than holding a grudge.
Then there are the times when I totally lose it and have to ask for forgiveness. Times when I send them to time-out and forget they’re there or times when I accuse them of things that they didn’t do. And you know what? They forgive me. No questions asked, complete and total forgiveness.
Jesus tells us, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Forgiveness must be one of the aspects he was referring to in that passage because I know that my heart is not nearly as forgiving as my children’s hearts. When someone insults me, I certainly don’t forgive and forget. Holding on is so easy. For weeks, months, even years, I can hold onto an offence. If the offender apologizes, I don’t (usually) have too much trouble forgiving, but what about when they don’t?
If my children held on to every little thing I ever did wrong, would we have a good relationship?
There’s no way! And whose fault would that be? It’s not only in the scripture that we are to be kind and loving, but also that we are to be forgiving. We’d both be at fault.
Ephesians 4:32 “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
Wow. So I can be kind and tenderhearted, but if I’m not forgiving, I’m definitely not being Christ-like. I’m falling way, way, way short. Think about how many times your children have forgiven you. Now think about how many more times God has forgiven you. How many offences you’ve had to plead for Christ’s blood to cover. How many sins you’ve forgotten to even ask specific forgiveness for, but you know that He forgives because He knows what is in your heart.
So because of His forgiveness, we ought also to forgive…even those who don’t ask. Because not only is it what He asks us to do, it’s what will help our hearts to be whole.
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A beautiful post! This is so raw and personal and so true. I really appreciate you being real with us. I fully agree that this must have been one of the characteristics that Christ was referring to. Thank you for the food for thought!
Goodness, you are so right. They love with all their hearts and forgive without grudges. We can learn so much from them.