How forgiveness helped my family

Like many teenage siblings, my sister and I fought. We loved each other, but there was definitely a lot of bickering. Still, it caught me by surprise when one time, out of nowhere, she threatened me. I was shocked because this was so uncharacteristic of her, and shaken because of what she’d done. So, the next day I decided to pretend to do the same to her.

I had no intention of harming her. I just wanted to get back at her—maybe scare her enough so she’d never threaten me again. Only this time, my father saw what was happening, and he didn’t realize I was just fooling around. Neither did my sister, who ran away from me and hid under her bed. My dad was upset and sent me to my room, telling me that if I stayed there, he wouldn’t mention to my mother what had happened. 

After having a long cry over what felt like a great injustice, I turned to my Bible, as I had done so many times before. I opened to the scene of the crucifixion, in which Jesus asks God to forgive his crucifiers, “for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). While I knew my injustice paled in comparison to the crucifixion, I’d learned in Christian Science Sunday School that each Bible story and passage has relevance to our lives when we pray with it and understand its deeper meaning. So, that’s what I did.