I had something of a hard time at school - for various reasons really.

Whenever I thought back on the time I was at school, the whole situation seemed really dark, and in my mind the children who bullied me seemed to loom like huge shadows in my memories.

One day I was thinking about a teaching we'd had in KCF about forgiveness, and how it's important not only because God tells us to forgive, but also because it helps us too. I decided to forgive them.

Over the course of the next few days I realised that my memories themselves had changed.The memories of the children who had bullied me and of my time at school which previously had held such negative significance had seemed to "shrink" and the darkness which had covered all of that time had faded.

It made me realise why God tells us to forgive: that in his mercy he considers both the forgiver and the forgiven.

                                                                        Claire