Monday, February 29
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
I have always seen myself as a very forgiving person, so I began to wonder why I picked this verse to do a Lenten devotion on. It suddenly came to me that there was one person I had never forgiven –Barbara – a girl from my past. Actually this incident happened over 70 years ago. For my 10th birthday, my aunt gave me a pretty silver bracelet –two hearts twined together with pretty yellow roses pained on the front and my initials emc engraved on the back. The only problem was this bracelet was too big for my wrist. My parents told me not to wear it until they could get it to a jeweler to have it fitted to my wrist. But being a 10 year old, I wanted to show all my friends at school this beautiful bracelet, so unknown to my parents I took it to school. Indeed, all my friends thought it was beautiful. Everything was fine until I left school at the end of the day. In the schoolyard the bracelet slipped off my wrist and fell onto the ground. At that moment Barbara, a girl a couple of years older than me, picked up the bracelet and said “Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers.” When she refused to give me back the bracelet, I began crying.
When I got home and told my parents, my dad said we would go to Barbara’s house and talk to her about the bracelet. Barbara’s mother refused to listen to us, saying that Barbara told her she found this bracelet several days before so it could not possibly be mine, and she refused to look at the back where my initials were engraved. She said that I was just a little troublemaker and slammed the door on us.
I decided immediately that I would never forgive either Barbara or her mother for the loss of my bracelet. And, I don’t think I did. Then it came to me: before I could forgive them I first had to forgive myself. If I hadn’t disobeyed my parents and worn that bracelet to school, it would never have fallen from my wrist. Now that I have forgiven myself for being a foolish little child, I can forgive Barbara and her mother.
Praise God for teaching me this lesson, even though it is a bit late. Amen
–Ellie Kell