A Lesson From My Five-Year-Old Daughter

This past week we were on vacation as a family.  My two oldest daughters are still learning to swim and we were in the pool with both of them wearing some type of flotation device.  I was playing around with my middle daughter and asked her if I could throw her up in the air and let her land in the water.  She is my dare devil so she was all about it, until her head went under water for a brief second before she popped back up.  The crying and freaking out began immediately.  I was right beside her already and picked her up to console her, but she was not happy about what had just happened.

I had forgotten about the incident until yesterday when I was taking her to dance class.  She said to me, “Dad, when I went under the water, I thought I was dead.”  That is something that will make a Dad feel terrible.  I said to her, “sweetheart, Dad should have warned you that your head might go under water for a second and I hope that you’ll forgive me for not telling you that.”  The words that came out of her mouth thrilled my heart as she said, “but Dad, I already forgave you when I was under the water.”
Now, I have no idea if my daughter actually forgave me during the split second that she got a face full of water the other day, but you have to love her attitude about it.  The thought that went through my mind was, “Father, please let me forgive that quickly and that eagerly.”

A lot of times we have a long mental list of the wrongs that have been committed against us.  We can spit out all of the ways that we have been wronged.  It is tempting to nurse these grudges and think about revenge, until we remember the cross of Jesus.  In the cross of Jesus, we are reminded that God has taken every one of our sins against him and paid the price for them with the life of his own Son.  Then, when we trust wholly in his Son, he forgives us for all of our sins.  When we compare our sins against God to the sins of others against us, how can we not forgive when we have been forgiven so much?

Related Posts:
“How I Learned About Forgiveness”
“Karma is Dead”

For Further Reading:
Forgiveness by John MacArthur
In My Place Condemned He Stood by Mark Dever and J.I. Packer