Forgive...and Forgive

My dad has been building a storm shelter in our back yard. He had to dig a HUGE hole and he is now laying down the concrete blocks. He  wrote his plans on a piece of line paper.  A couple of weeks ago, while working on his project in the hole, he asked me to take that very same piece of paper into the house.

That evening, he asked me where I had put the piece of paper. I couldn't remember and we ended up turning the whole house upside down trying to find it. Finally, Mom found it.

In the trash can.

Stupidly, me, being obsessed and distracted with the computer, carelessly and accidentally threw it in the trash.

Dad got mad at me at first, but he forgave me and said he was going to forget about it.

A few days later, I put my finished homework in the book we usually put our finished homework in. That night, Dad wanted to grade, but somehow it wasn't there.

I told him I was sure I put it in there, but he really didn't believe since there was no evidence. I was really upset and tired. Losing my homework wasn't what I needed right now.

Surely enough, someone looked in the trash can and there it was. Mom had threw it away, thinking it was scrap paper!

My first thought was, How could Mom do this to me? I'm never going to forgive her!

But then I remembered that I had done the same thing a few days ago. When Mom came in my room to say she was sorry, I forgave her.

It's a lot like a story Jesus told about the unforgiving servant. The point is that we have to forgive others if we want God to forgive us.

God is so great to forgive me time and time again.