Asking Forgiveness

The more children I have, the more I find need to ask forgiveness of them from time to time. Here is an excerpt from The Things You'll See by Lawrence R. Lucas. It's a wonderful little reminder.

So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24

When we sin, we confess our wrong to God and so are cleansed. When we sin against another, we offer our confession to them as well. It's not easy, perhaps because it tests our humility, affronts our pride. In many instances, the very one we must ask forgiveness of is the one we want to believe provoked us to sin. God, however, requires obedience from His servants without regard to what others may have said or done. We walk before him, we stand before Him, and we fall before Him.

When we sin against our children, through anger or impatience, for example, we need to confess our sin to them, just as we would to another adult. Just because they're small and can be easily bullied, because we can more easily dictate the terms of our reconciliation, because they're less apt to recognize or question the purity of our confession, these are no reasons to renege on our duty. We make our confession clean, because each time we do we model for them what theirs must be.

Enough said.