By Ann Farabee

Oh, if I had a dollar for every student that walked up to me during my teaching career and said, “He hurt my feelings,” or equally as often, “She hurt my feelings!”

Quite frankly, that is a tough one, mostly because one can rarely take back whatever creates hurt feelings. Trying to take back an inappropriate comment or action once it has been released is difficult. Thankfully, that is where forgiveness comes in.

As a teacher, I never allowed, “Sorry!” to be a sufficient apology. I expected my students to drag it out with, “I am very sorry that I _________. I was wrong. Will you forgive me?” That blank had to be filled in with the name of the offense that had been committed by the offender.

That required a response from the offended, who was often not ready to forgive, but realized they had little choice but to say, “I forgive you.” Once they spoke those words of offering or accepting forgiveness, the sweet spirit of friendship would usually prevail once again, and they would play together during recess, which is an ultimate show of forgiveness in the school world.

Isn’t there something that feels eternal about expressing or hearing words of forgiveness?

The Holy Spirit stirs our hearts when forgiveness happens because we are being like Jesus.

My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has always heard my cries for forgiveness. It is as though His words of forgiveness are planted into my spirit, and they always bring peace.

When an offender admits wrong, admits regret and asks to be forgiven, they are in the midst of a process that Jesus taught us — asking forgiveness and offering forgiveness.

In my classroom, most of the time the offender and the offended walked away together after being the recipients of my encouraging words and attempts to help resolve their disagreements. To be transparent, however, I do remember one time that the two offenders took a few steps away from me and immediately began pushing and shoving again. I guess my strategy did not win every battle.

Sometimes, two students would approach a fight in a different way. They would put up their fists and dance around like they were going to hit each other, but that clearly was not what they wanted to happen. Those fights were easy to break up, walking away was sufficient, and everyone seemed satisfied.

At times, I think of myself as having some of the same responses when in a battle. I go into a battle prepared to fight, with my fists up, knowing that if the makings of a brawl ensued, I would use my fists to cover my face and hide.

Just like in other life circumstances, the Bible provides a message to help us know what to do when we face a battle, whether it is a physical, spiritual, mental or emotional battle.

These words from 2 Samuel 5:16 can change our lives.

Ready?

And Elishama, and Eliada and Eliphalet.

Yep. That is the answer to our problems.

Just in case you are not familiar with those words, this is what they mean:

God hears, knows and delivers.

Forgiveness and reconciliation is recorded in Genesis 45 and continues throughout God’s Word, where it still grows and flourishes in our hearts and lives today.

Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you. — Ephesians 4:32