Do We Have a Forgiving Heart?

I’ve had people in the past tell me that I’m way

too forgiving. A girl in high school purposefully rammed into me because I was walking a little too slow one day. It shocked me, but I just shook it off. Another girl walking by said, “Girl, I would have smacked her if she’d done that to me.”

I just shook my head and said ‘no’. Another time, I had a conversation with another girl, and she said that she used to be just like me-super forgiving, and easy going about things. She said she ‘grew’ out of it because she felt like she was being walked all over.

Okay…I understand that. Nobody wants to be stepped on like a doormat. I don’t particularly like it either. It’s just that, in my mind, I don’t see the point of retaliating and holding grudges. I never have. When I see people who do that, I feel bad for them because I just can’t imagine how miserable their lives must be.

Being vengeful and hateful is a waste of valuable time. These people go through life everyday thinking of how awful and horrible a person is because of something they did. You’re constantly thinking of ways to get them back and to hurt them. You’re constantly stuck in a state of sadness and anger because of those people.

You hurt them, they hurt you back. There’s always something to be angry about. Then, you base your self-worth and quality of life based on that person.

God calls us to love, and to be peacemakers (Matt. 5:9). He calls us to not be vengeful and hateful (Hebrews 10:30, Romans 12:19, 1^st John 4:20). Just think about how much simpler and easier people’s lives would be if they just let things go and move on. Sure, there are things that are going to hurt us sometimes when we think about it. However, these things can destroy the rest of our life only if we allow them to do so.

If forgiveness is an issue for you, God can help you forgive. The biggest way to take that first step into forgiveness is to do something nice for the person that hurt you. To the rest of the world, it seems silly to do kindness to those who “persecute you and say all kinds of evil and lies against you” (Matthew 5:11). It’s not easy to love sometimes, but it’s always worth it.

If I had gone up and smacked that girl for bumping into me like she did, where would that have gotten me? Well, I would have ended up in the principal’s office for one thing. Secondly, I would have been suspended. Third, I would have most likely been grounded.

And the worst part would have been that my influence for Christ would have been damaged. In school, I wanted them to see me as a follower of Christ. Jesus was humble, kind, and gentle. I wanted to be the same way. In a school where it was common to retaliate when someone hurt you, I wanted to be one of the ones who said no hate and vengeance.

What about us? Are you using the love of God towards others? Or are you going to allow your life to be over-run with hatred and anger? Life is too short to allow those things to ruin our lives.