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To The Editor:

Peter asked Christ, “How many times should I be willing to forgive my brother, seven times?”

Christ replied, “No, not just seven times, rather 77 times (Matthew 18:21-22).

Realistically speaking, nobody sins against us 77 times. We separate ourselves from their abuse way before they can victimize us that many times, usually. So what was Christ getting at?

Well, a lot of the time the need to forgive someone comes in terms of our old memories. Someone named Jack did something to us 20 or 30 years ago. But we go over it even now. That is the situation where forgiving Jack needs to be done 10 times, 30 or even 70 times — whenever the memories come back to haunt us.

I’m saying forgiving the other person can be especially helpful in freeing ourselves from bad memories that would engulf or even drown us. It’s a way to avoid getting high blood pressure and wasting time.

Joe Grace

Farmville