Forgiving

Timothy Kahl was a very good boy, except for one thing. He always obeyed his parents, he always told the truth, and did his jobs without having to be told twice. But, if you ever did anything mean to Timothy Kahl, then you’d better look out! He would never forget.

He didn’t forget that Caroline Grigsby had made fun of the hole in his coat in front of her friends. He didn’t forget that Hector Carmichael, the big, neighborhood bully, had tripped him when he was carrying a box of library books.

And he didn’t forget that his little brother, Josh, had crashed his model airplane to the floor. It was his favorite plane, too, and it had smashed into about a hundred pieces that went flying everywhere. Timothy hollered so loudly at Josh that it made him cry. It was very unfair for Josh to cry, Timothy thought. He wasn’t the one who had a little brother who smashed his airplane. It was all so unfair. Little brothers should be kept in cages until they were bigger, Timothy thought.

Timothy kept the wrecked plane on his desk where he could see it everyday. Sometimes he would show it to Josh, to remind him. Josh would look sad and that would make Timothy feel glad. It was not a very good kind of gladness, but Timothy liked to do it.

One night Daddy read the story of David, the shepherd boy who loved God. Daddy told how David came to play music for King Saul to make him feel better. But the music did not help, and King Saul felt worse and worse, because his heart was not right with God. Finally, he picked up a spear, and threw it at David. King Saul wanted to kill David; there was hatred in his heart. But David escaped. King Saul chased David day and night.

Timothy’s eyes grew big. It was so unfair! David hadn’t done anything wrong.

But Daddy said that David prayed to be able to forgive King Saul. And the Lord helped him. David and his friends were hiding in a cave when King Saul and his men came in. They did not see David or his friends. King Saul went to sleep in the cave, while his men watched outside.

“Here’s your chance,” David’s friends said to him. “Why don’t you kill him?”

“No,” said David. “I cannot touch him. I must forgive him and let God take care of him.”

Timothy felt very strange. Suddenly, he knew what he must do. He ran and got the wrecked airplane, and dropped it in the wastebasket. Then he went to Josh.

“Josh, I’m sorry I didn’t forgive you—” he began. But deep inside of him, something broke in his heart and he began to cry. Inside of him, his heart began to pray to God. “I’m so sorry I didn’t forgive,” he prayed. He remembered his hard feelings against Hector and Caroline. At each remembrance, he begged God to forgive him. He forgot about the wrongs others had done to him, because he remembered how wrong he was. And then Timothy realized that Jesus wanted to forgive him, wanted to change him and make him different. Oh, how he wanted it! And he believed that Jesus could and would. Then something amazing happened inside, and he felt so happy. He hugged Josh. He hugged Mother and Daddy and everybody else in the family.

The new Timothy now forgave others when they did wrong to him.