The key to forgiveness
One afternoon, my friend and I were hanging out in the pickup area outside my school, waiting for my mom to come get me. Suddenly, I heard a small clank on the ground. When I looked down, I saw that a tiny piece of my necklace had apparently just fallen off. I picked it up, and my friend and I tried to put it back on. But while my friend was trying to connect it, the piece slipped from her fingers and fell back onto the ground. Neither of us had any idea where it had landed. There was a patch of grass nearby, and we were both worried that it had fallen there and that it would be impossible to find.
We started looking for the piece, but I have to admit that even though my friend was helping me, I was not thinking the kindest thoughts about her. I felt like blaming her and giving up the search, because how would we ever find it now?
I started to reverse those negative thoughts, turn toward God, and forgive my friend.
Then I realized that these thoughts were unproductive. Not only was my friend being nice enough to help me, but I’d learned in the Christian Science Sunday School that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, so there is always an answer. I realized that I didn’t need to be afraid of not finding the piece, because God already had everything taken care of.
After this nice thought, I started to reverse those negative thoughts, turn toward God, and forgive my friend. Not just forgiving by saying “I forgive you,” but really, truly knowing that we all have one Father-Mother God, one divine Mind, one Love. I was thinking that since this one all-loving, all-knowing Mind was governing everyone, there couldn’t be any conflict between us.
Once I got my thoughts back on track and forgave my friend, I felt confident that I was bound to find the piece. And I didn’t even have to search! When I looked down, the sun was shining right on it! In just a few minutes, I’d re-attached it to my necklace, and it was as good as new.
For me, the key to forgiving was turning away from what was negative and upsetting and recognizing and loving the good about my friend instead. In fact, since this experience, I feel like I’ve been a lot more aware of the good that everyone naturally reflects from God, good. This has meant that I actually haven’t had too many times recently when I’ve needed to forgive someone, because I already know how good God made them.
