We have been talking the last couple of months about the teaching of the Bible that can help quiet some of the storms that teenagers face today and how they can find the peace that passes understanding. One topic we talked about a lot was forgiveness. I was reminded of a story where a woman was bitten by a rabid dog. It looked like she was going to die from rabies. The doctor told her to put her final affairs in order. The woman took pen and paper and began writing furiously. In fact, she wrote and wrote and wrote. Finally, the doctor said, “That sure is a long will you’re making.” She snorted, “Will, nothing! I’m making a list of all the people I’m going to bite!”

It’s a funny story, but the truth of the matter is a lot of us walk around carrying a list of all the people who have ever wronged us. We wait for the day when we might get even, or perhaps they will do something to “earn” our forgiveness. As Christians this is not the way we should act. In fact, in Matthew chapter 6, when he is teaching his disciple how to pray in his model prayer, Jesus says to God, “forgive us our debts, as we forgive or debtors.” How many of us can say that to God, “Lord forgive me however much I have forgiven other people?” For many of us, that would be a very scary prayer to say.

What we don’t realize is when we fail to forgive, the only one we are causing to suffer is ourselves. It’s like in another story I read, about a little boy who was sitting on a park bench in obvious agony. A man walking by asked him what was wrong. The boy answered, “I’m sitting on a bumble bee.” “Then why don’t you get up?” the man asked. The boy replied, “Because I figure that I am hurting him more than he is hurting me!”

The healing process begins when we get up off the park bench. God will only heal our wounds when we stop inflicting pain on the one who hurt us. If you are still holding on to hurt feelings, let them go and let God’s forgiveness begin to work on you.