Steve's story.
A number of years ago, a christian man received a call,
from a woman, that her husband was discouraged and crying like a baby. She asked him if he could come and speak to her husband.
The christian man was familiar with the family and made arrangements for someone to cover for him at work.
Arriving at the home, he found the man sitting at his kitchen table. Tears were rolling down his cheeks and he was
sobbing, The christian man held his hand and quietly asked him if he would like to talk.
This
is the man's story.
He said "I've been thinking about when I was a child and
about my father." The christian friend said, "your father has been dead for about 30 years now, Is there something
you would like to share?"
When he was a child, his father would take him out in
the porch and tie him to a chair. Then he would beat him with whatever was available. Apparently, his mom was a christian
and for some reason she was unaware of the beatings, He was afraid of his father and was too scared to tell anybody. The man
was now 55 years old and had kept this a secret for all those years.
He looked at his christian
friend and said "why did my dad beat me? I wasn't a bad child..why..why..why?"
The christian friend, still holding his hand and praying for wisdom, said, "I'm so sorry to hear what happened
to you as a child and that you've been carrying this hurt with you all of your life. (the man had been to psychiatrists
and was on medication for his nerves)
What your father did was wrong. I don't know
why he beat you but he is still beating you today. The man looked at his christian friend and asked. "How can this be?"
"My dad is dead!"
Yes he is but when you think about your father, you get angry
and you feel the pain. You have to forgive your father. Even though he is dead, he is alive in your memory and in your emotions.
The christian friend held his hand and asked him to repeat a prayer of forgiveness for his father.
The prayer went something like this.
"Dad, I don't know why you beat me
as a child but I want to let you know that I love you and I forgive you." Thank you Lord because you are healing my pain.
In Jesus name I pray amen."
It was a simple prayer with no long rhetoric.
The man's countenance changed and he became a different person.
What the doctor's
had tried to help with medication was overcome with forgiveness. They had failed to find the root of his problem.
The following are links sites that deal with the forgiveness principle.
