Article November 17, 2014 Issue

Love and forgive

Inge Hake

Originally written in German, this article first appeared in the August 2014 Portuguese, French, German, and Spanish editions of The Herald of Christian Science.

If someone were to ask you whether love is important to you and whether you love your neighbor, you would most likely say, “Of course!” We love our children, our parents, our grandchildren, our friends—we love each other. But what happens to our love when we are slandered, deceived, or despised? And to what extent are we willing to forgive in such a case? That’s exactly the question I was confronted with at one time: Do I love my neighbor, and do I forgive, when he or she has done something wrong to me?

After the first few months of working in my first position as a schoolteacher, I found myself being badly harassed by a colleague. A number of times she ridiculed me in front of students and colleagues, and I was about to despair.

Finally, I called a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful support, which she happily agreed to give. She pointed me to the article “Taking offense,” where the writer says, “The mental arrow shot from another’s bow is practically harmless, unless our own thought barbs it” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp. 223–224). The practitioner encouraged me not to respond to my colleague’s derogatory remarks by taking offense. Instead, I was to actively oppose each disturbing thought, which would attempt to separate or distract me from the good God had bestowed on me as His beloved child.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Love and forgive

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access