Dad,

Forgiveness can be mastered, but we are not able to erase history. My wife and I have talked at length about forgiveness and how to go about getting better at it. What we have discovered is that our skill at forgiving gets sharpened, but our ability to forget is dull at best. I am forgiven for many things, but those things are not gone, just forgiven. It reminds me of a story I heard about a boy who has a bad temper. His dad told him that he had to hammer a nail in the fence every time he had an outburst. Once he had his temper in check a little better, his dad told him to remove a nail every time he refrained from an outburst. When he had finally removed all of the nails, he was able to see what a mess he had made of the fence.

Bryan.