Healing Family Relationships: Finding Healing Through ForgivenessНамуна

When a family member does something that hurts our feelings a couple of times, it may not feel like a big deal to forgive them. What if they do it ten times? Fifty times? Now it is a different story. You may remember that Jesus' disciples asked Him about this. Peter thought that forgiving his brother seven times for something was quite generous. Jesus blasted that out of the water when He called Peter to forgive seventy-seven times! This, of course, was not meant to be a literal number. It was a call to a lifetime and lifestyle of forgiveness.

I once heard a powerful seminar by Jerry Root, a professor at Wheaton College. He emphasized how the call to forgive is first and foremost a choice we make for our own freedom and wholeness. He shared this illustration: If you have rats in your house, you don't get rid of them by eating a box of rat poison. That course of action won't do anything to the rats and might just kill you. Holding on to bitterness and anger hurts us far more than the person with whom we are in conflict. Jerry asked, "How many times should we say no to eating rat poison?" Every time. All the time. "Seventy-seven times."

Choosing forgiveness is choosing freedom. And sometimes it's a choice we have to make over and over again. The pathway to healing begins with this choice.

Reflection Question: Is there someone in your life you need to forgive "yet again"? How might viewing forgiveness as freedom change your perspective?