A little section out of our devotion today

"Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?
till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until
seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." Matthew 18:12,22 (KJV)

I remember first hearing this story in Sunday School class as a
young lad. My Sunday School teacher had just delivered a beautiful
story to us about forgiveness, and was now speaking of the
importance of forgiveness in our lives. Forgiveness for our
siblings, for our playmates, even for our parents when he became
distracted by my doodling with a pencil and paper and asked me what
I was doing. I told him I was figuring out how much seventy times
seven was. He merely answered, "Once you have figured it out, what
difference will it make?" "I will know how many times I have to
forgive somebody", I replied a bit squeamishly. By now he was a bit
"put out" with my lack of attentiveness, and retorted, "Son, if
that's all you got out of it, you've missed the point".

I guess a good many of us "have" missed the point. We have cast a
spell of loneliness, and bitterness and utter misery on ourselves as
well as others ... all because we couldn't or wouldn't forgive.
Forgiveness is a blessing, a grace; which is not something most of
us have developed. Maybe it's because we hoped we would never have
to use it. Yet when the time comes that we need that "grace" to
forgive - we won't be able to, because we won't know how.