The Magic of Forgiveness

She was only four years old! But her daddy loved her and when he heard that some boy knocked her down at school resulting in a scratch over her eye, he went ballistic. The school happened to be one of three Classical Schools of the Meads in northern Iraq that Partners International has helped to fund during the last several years. But for this Muslim background father, that just made it all the more reason to rant and curse everyone associated with a school that could allow such a thing to happen to his little girl.

Until, she came to her father and asked, “Why are you cursing, Daddy? When the boy helped me back up again, he said he was sorry. So I forgave him. Everything is OK now. There’s no reason to be angry.”

It was Yousif and Alia Matty, our ministry partner leaders from Iraq that told me this story last Sunday at the dinner table. They said that they have been stressing the Biblical principle of asking forgiveness with the children in their schools precisely because it is so absent in typical Islamic and therefore Iraqi culture.

They went on to explain that when the girl’s dad, a local magazine writer, heard her say this, he was stunned—not expecting to learn such a lesson from his daughter. In fact, he was so impacted, he decided to write an entire article in the Kurdish magazine about the concept saying you're sorry. He entitled it: The Magic of Forgiveness.

This was just one of several similar stories from the Mattys telling how the values on which their Christian schools are based are touching the lives of their 1800 students. Even though 96% of them are from Muslim homes, the ripple effect is reaching many other family members as well, several of which have come to the Mattys for spiritual counsel.