A lesson in Forgiveness

Writing by the shores of Lake Superior.

I am so thankful to God for lessons he teaches us through our children. As many of you know we have had struggles with Jeremiah and his impulse control. This year started off kind of rough, but through grace God has taught us all some lessons. Jeremiah is growing, maturing and making better decisions. We still have impulse problems and probably will have for time to come, but he seems like a different person. There is so much to write about our journey, but I have one story from yesterday that I just needed to share.

Wednesday after school Jeremiah was hanging out with his friends after he got off the bus at the elementary school (This situation is not good for any of the kids, but it's to long to explain here). Anyway his friend had just won a MP3 player from the fund raiser the school held. Another boy was trying to get this MP3 player. Jeremiah and another boy were shielding their friend from this boy. The boy then haled off and kneed Jeremiah in the - ya know. When I came out of school (I was at Bekah's Halloween party) a bunch of kids came and told me Jeremiah was really hurt. I went to the bus and got him off (he had since gone on there), the bus transportation head told me he would talk to the boys on Thursday. Well Jeremiah was so worried. He said "Mom, now I'm going to get in trouble for doing something right". He is always thinking he is a bad kid. His friends father called that night and said that he would support Jeremiah, and that they thought the world of him. That meant alot.

Anyway yesterday was the day. Steve had called the head of school transportation and then went and talked to Mr. Thompson the Middle School Principal. Mr. Thompson said no punishment was meted out because that falls under the Transportation discipline policy not schools (don't you think it should be one and the same?). Well Jeremiah got home and Steve wanted to to see how it went. So I took him in the living room and asked him. This is what he said:

"Mom I felt several emotions "anger, hatred, fear". This boy was really crying, and I remembered the TeamKID verse from a while ago "Do not Judge and you won't be judged, do not condemn and you won't be condemned, forgive and you will be forgiven" Luke 6:37, so I told Mr. Thompson, no punishment was needed." He said Mr. Thompson said "Really". My son demonstrated Christ's truth. To say I was speechless and proud would be an understatement. I told him about the lesson that Beth Moore taught on Wednesday about when people do things to us, what would we have God do to them (we were in the Lord's Prayer, part"forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"). Anyway if we do not forgive, Christ cannot forgive us, so we should want mercy for the people who hurt us. Jeremiah exhibited that forgiveness!

Thank you Jesus for working in my sons (and daughters) life! Continue to show us your mercies and may we show that mercy to others.