Forgiveness

So people email me stuff all the time. Some stuff is silly, some stuff is cute, and some stuff really touches my heart. A while ago I got this emailed to me. (Thank, Beth!) I thought it was really useful to think about. Tell me what you think...

Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument and one friend slapped the other one on the face. 

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand, "Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. 

After he had recovered from drowning he wrote on a stone. "Today my best friend saved my life."

The friend who had slapped him and then saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you  you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a  stone, why?"

The friend replied, "When someone hurts us we should write it down in the sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone.

Have you been hurt lately? Are you holding on to those feelings of hurt? Let them go... forgive whoever it was that hurt you. Remember Matthew 6:14-15 "If you forgive others for the wrongs they do to you, your Father in heaven will forgive you. But id you don't forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." It's not easy to forgive people when they've hurt you. When we do forgive, God sets our hearts free from anger, bitterness and resentment which can keep us from growing closer to Him.