“Love . . . keeps no record of being wronged” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5).

One of my school textbooks had a mother-and-son story that I still remember. The mother was a harassed housewife with so many things to do, and she expected the boy to help her. He had his own priorities in life and resented doing what the mother wanted. One day he decided to ask his mother to pay for the services rendered by him. So he prepared a bill and placed it under her pillow. It was something like this. Drawing two buckets of water from the well: 2 annas; buying groceries from the market: 3 annas; dusting the furniture: 3 annas; going to the neighbour’s home to borrow sugar: 1 anna; and so on. He could easily earn a rupee for just a day’s labour, he thought, or mother may just stop asking for his help. He went to sleep dreaming of a better future for himself either way. When he got up he was delighted to find a rupee coin under his pillow, but along with it was a bill. Carrying you for nine months prior to birth: nothing; giving you birth at the peril of my own life: nothing; nursing you for a year: nothing; teaching you to walk and talk: nothing; caring for you when you were sick: nothing; and so on. It was a long list but the total bill was nil. The son rushed to his mother and wept in her arms.

I Corinthians 13:4-5 says that love does not keep an account of other people’s wrongs, nor does it flaunt or boast about one’s own good deeds. But the human brain maintains a detailed log of every event in our life, records every conversation that we have had, retains every image that our eyes have captured. We can recall words that hurt us even many years after they were spoken. Nations go to war over issues that are centuries old. How convenient would it be to selectively erase our memory like that of a computer!

I Corinthians Chapter 13:1-13 talks about the great strength of love, but it also cautions us about its fragility. Resentments, grievances, ill-feelings, complaints, and hurts have no place in the record book of love.

(Note: In the old Indian currency, 16 annas made a rupee. Now one rupee is made of 100 paise.)  —Submitted by R. R., India