Forgiveness

I learned a powerful lesson on forgiveness one day from my little girl. She came in the house after playing with a friend and was visibly upset. She explained to me that they had found a cat together. Her friend was upset with her because while my daughter had taken a turn to hold the cat, it had wriggled away from her grasp and ran off. I explained to my daughter that she didn't need to feel bad, she hadn't done anything wrong. It's normal for cats to run off like that when they don't want to be petted and held anymore. She seemed to feel better about the situation, and went off to play in her room.

Later that day she brought me a small piece of paper. On that paper, in her cute Kindergarten handwriting, she had written, "Sory I let go of the cat." She was asking me if that was the right way to spell 'sorry'. I asked her if she was giving the note to her friend and she said yes. "But Miss," I explained to her again, "You didn't do anything wrong, you don't need to say sorry or feel bad about what happened." Then she looked back at me and said, "But, mom, she is sad. I want to give her my note." And right there I learned a powerful lesson from my 5-year-old little girl.

As adults, when facing a tough situation like these two little girls did, we can get so caught up in sticking to a 'who is right' and 'who is wrong' point of view. When disagreements or arguments come up, we tend to hold stubbornly to our viewpoint, insisting that we have done nothing wrong and the other party is to blame. My little girl reminded me that day that forgiveness is never about who is right or who is wrong, who was hurtful or who wasn't. Forgiveness is simply about letting go, about putting people and relationships first. Saying 'I'm sorry' means you care about the other person and how they feel, and forgiving means you let go of all those negative feelings and simply forgive.

I am grateful for the simple ways my innocent children teach me each day. And I am thankful for my little girl's example to me that day.