2. Imagine that you had to carry that picture around with you all the time.
3. Now imagine that every time you got mad at someone, you had to draw a picture, and carry all of your pictures around with you.
Forgiveness lets you get rid of those pictures that you carry around with you, the ones that keep you from being able to think and do other things.
Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down:
- 1. Are you forgiving when you say, “I forgive you, but I will never forget how unkind you have been to me”?
- 2. Are you forgiving when you are happy that something bad happens to someone you do not like?
- 3. Are you forgiving when you want to get even with someone who pushed or hit you?
- 4. Are you forgiving when you stop talking to someone who told lies about you?
- 5. Are you forgiving when you speak unkindly about the person who does not choose you to be on his or her team?
To truly forgive we must:
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|
 |
| 2.
Not judge or criticize others.
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| 3. Forget about what was done. |
7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in
the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your
sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to
my sheaf.
8 And
his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed
have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for
his words.
Genesis 41
56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph
opened all the storehouses, and sold unto
the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to
buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
Genesis 42
l1 Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in
Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
2 And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt:
get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not
die.
3 ¶And Joseph’s ten brethren went down
to buy corn in
Egypt.
4 But Benjamin,
Joseph’s brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest
peradventure mischief befall him.
6 And
Joseph was the governor over
the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the
land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down
themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
(What do you remember when they bow down to him?)
(What do you remember when they bow down to him?)
7 And Joseph saw his brethren, and he
knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and
he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to
buy food.
23 And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he
spake unto them by an interpreter.
Genesis 42
21 ¶And they said one to another,
We are verily guilty concerning
our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and
we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
22 And Reuben answered
them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and
ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is
required. [Read 23 again.]
Genesis
42
15 Hereby ye shall be proved: By the
life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come
hither.
16 Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be
kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be
any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely are spies. [Read also verse 20.]
20 But bring your youngest brother
unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did
so.
36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me
have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and
Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all
these things are against me.[Read also 38.]
37 And Reuben spake
unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver
him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again.
38 And he said, My son shall not
go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief
befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray
hairs with sorrow to
the grave.
Genesis
43
1 And the
famine was sore in the land.
2 And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which
they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a
little food.
3 And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly
protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with
you.
4 If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and
buy thee food:
29 And he lifted up his
eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin,
his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye
spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son.
30 And Joseph made haste;
for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to
weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
Genesis
44
s 1 And he commanded the
steward of his house, saying, Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much
as they can carry, and put every man’s money in his sack’s mouth.
2 And put my cup, the silver
cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did
according to the word that Joseph had spoken.
3 As soon as the morning was
light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.
4 And when they were
gone out of the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto
his steward, Up, follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say
unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?
5 Is not
this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye
have done evil in so doing. [Read also 11-13.]
11 Then they speedily took down
every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack.
12 And he
searched, and began at the eldest, and left at the youngest: and the
cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
13 Then they rent their
clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city.
Genesis 43
(11)
8 And Judah said
unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we
may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones.
9 I will be surety for him; of
my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him
before thee, then let me bear the blame for
ever: [Also
read 44: 31-34.]
Genesis 44
31 It shall come to pass, when
he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die: and
thy servants shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father
with sorrow to
the grave.
32 For thy servant became
surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I
shall bear the blame to
my father for ever.
33 Now therefore, I pray
thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let
the lad go up with his brethren.
34 For how shall I go up to
my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the
evil that shall come on my father.
Genesis 45:
1 Then Joseph could not a refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he b cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am a Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were b troubled at his presence.
4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am a Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Genesis 45
(12)
5 Now therefore
be not grieved,
nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me
before you to preserve life.
6 For these two
years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there
are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing
nor harvest.
7 And God sent me before you
to preserve you
a posterity in
the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it
was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a
father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt.
(13)
9 Haste ye, and go
up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me
lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not:
10 And thou shalt dwell in the
land of Goshen,
and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s
children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:
11 And there will I nourish thee;
for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household,
and all that thou hast, come to poverty. [Also read 14-15.]
14 And he fell upon his brother
Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
15 Moreover he kissed all his
brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.
(14)
14 For if ye forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15 But
if ye forgive not
men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
