Forgiving

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:25
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14-15
Forgiving is a core value of life. A core value of being a Christian. Being a Christian means we have come to our Heavenly Father and asked God to forgive us of our sins. It is absolutely necessary that we forgive others. The two verses above make it plain that we must forgive others as Christ has forgiven us. It seems every so often I will blog about forgiving and I think that is probably normal considering it is a core value. Something we cannot live without. Is their any wrong done to us in life that this does not apply?   Yesterday on face book I commented on a post and as happens, there was reply after reply back and forth. the post was "No White person alive today ever owned a slave. No Black person alive today was ever a slave. We can't move forward if people want to keep living in the past."   I believe this to be a true statement and I also believe it points back to living a life of forgiving others. What wrong can be done to us that we do not need to forgive? I think of the story of Corrie ten Boom, on a speaking engagement she saw one of her guards at the church she was speaking at. Someone who had mistreated her and her sister in the awful internment camps in Germany. She saw this man come towards her after the meeting was over and she remembered him. She prayed for strength to forgive, she knew it was necessary. Slavery was a dark period of our history in this country. It happened, it was wrong and we should get past it. It will take every black person that was harmed by civil rights abuses to learn to forgive. Every child that was abused by a parent must forgive.  Every employee that was mistreated by a boss must forgive. What sin committed against us does not fall under this need? I do not want to make light of the hurt caused by racial tension, but it must be forgiven. We cannot be forgiven by God for our own sins if we refuse to forgive any wrong against us.  How many generations is it OK to hold on to hurts and not forgive? A wife or husband cheated on their spouse in their marriage and they must learn to forgive. What sin escapes this need to forgive?  Think of the worst thing ever done to you or anyone you know, does it escape this need to forgive?  A young girl that was raped by an older brother, does it escape this need to forgive? I do not want to make light of any hurt I have mentioned. I have not faced every possible wrong myself, but I cannot see an escape clause in the above scripture. We must forgive.  God bless, LVZ.