Think about the last time someone hurt your feelings. Maybe someone said something mean, left you out, broke your stuff, or didn’t keep a promise. Remember how that felt? Not good, right?

Now here’s a hard question: Did you forgive them? Or are you still kind of mad about it?

Forgiving people is hard sometimes. When someone hurts us, we don’t feel like forgiving them. We might want them to get in trouble or feel bad about what they did. We might even want to be mean back to them.

But here’s what Jesus taught us: We should forgive others the same way God forgave us. And how did God forgive us? Completely! Freely! Even though we didn’t deserve it! God didn’t say, “I’ll forgive you, but I’m going to stay a little bit mad.” No, He forgave us 100% because of His grace!

When Jesus sent His disciples out to help people, He told them, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). It’s the same with forgiveness! We’ve freely received forgiveness from God, so we should freely give forgiveness to others.

Not forgiving someone is like carrying around a heavy backpack full of rocks. It weighs you down and makes you miserable! But when you forgive, it’s like dropping that backpack. You’re free!

Take Action: Is there someone you need to forgive? Even if they haven’t said sorry? Pray right now: “God, help me forgive [person’s name] the way You forgave me.” Then, if you can, tell that person you forgive them. Drop that heavy backpack!