Many kids have a tough life. Some years ago a boy named Josh McDowell in the United States had a hard time at school and it wasn’t easy for him at home either. His dad was a drunkard and sometimes he beat Josh’s mum. Whenever this happened Josh hated his father more and more.

After finishing high school Josh went to military boot camp and life was tough there too. Every night he fell asleep exhausted. He also had a bad accident when a large pipe crashed down on his head and he had to spend several months in hospital. During that time his mother died. She had been very sick, but Josh didn’t blame the sickness for her death – he blamed his father.

After Josh got out of hospital he decided to go to college and he did well and got good grades. But he thought that the Christians in his class were dumb. So he decided that he would write a term paper to prove that what the Bible taught was only a bunch of fairy tales.

But after much study, Josh found out that three things are really true: 1) Jesus is the Son of God, 2) Jesus rose from the dead and 3) the Bible is a true book. He could hardly believe it and at night he would lie thinking about what he had discovered.

One night Josh prayed to God, “Please forgive me and make me Your child” and, of course, God answered his prayer. Now Josh was a Christian, and he called his father to tell him the news. Life did not suddenly become easy for Josh. He had a car accident and was back in hospital. When he got out, he went back home to his father. One day Josh said to him, “Dad, thanks for taking such good care of me.” Of course, his father was surprised. He could see that Josh did not hate him anymore. Josh could tell him that now he loved him because the Lord Jesus had changed his life.

Josh’s father answered, “If God can help you love someone like me, I want to know Him too.”

So his father received the Lord Jesus as his Saviour.

Josh began to tell other people about the Lord Jesus and for ten years he traveled all over America and to other parts of the world. God helped Josh to forgive his father. If you have asked God to forgive your sins and to accept you as His child, then He can put His love into you heart, that way you can forgive those who may have hurt you, even though you cannot forget the bad things that may have happened to you. But don’t keep thinking about them. Instead, thank God each day that He is with you and ask Him to help you to forgive and to love others.