The first few decades of my life were spent being a brat. That’s actually putting it rather nicely. I said and did plenty of things that were selfish, mean, and hurtful. Especially to my parents. I grew up with parents who are Christian, and wanted to raise their family in a Christ-like manner. That means, when I was awful, my folks never went down the lengthy list of my wrongdoings. I was punished for whatever I needed to be punished for, and they moved on. Not once did they punish me for the same thing twice. They never brought up anything I’d done in the past as a means to hurt me. They never held my sins over my head.

That’s what God does. We sin, we come to Him remorseful, ask forgiveness, and He grants it. He moves forward with us. Never will He bring up all of our past sins, but we often do. I don’t know about you, but I have a difficult time not keeping track of wrongdoings against me. It used to feel impossible, but when I finally started to mature, and walk with God, it became easier. Easier, it’s still not easy, and it’s a conscious decision every time I feel wronged, to not bring up past issues. Now, some people say forgive and forget, but I disagree. Forgive, you’ll definitely remember, but fight the urge to bring it up. Do you think God forgets? It’s not like He forgives us and then it’s gone from His memory, He remembers. He just doesn’t nag us about past sins. He doesn’t hold them over our heads.

We are human, we mess up, we hurt those we love. Don’t you want to be able to mess up and not have all of your past sins rubbed in your face? It doesn’t help when that happens, it damages relationships, it damages self-worth. We show love by not keeping a record of people’s wrongdoings. When we argue with our spouse, we offer safety in knowing we won’t harp on them about all the other times they screwed up. We teach others how we want to be treated, so we treat them in a Christ-like manner.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.