Say You're Sorry

     Remember when you were little and people would tell you to, "Say you are sorry," even when you weren't sorry? I never liked that and as a teacher and later a school principal, I never required a child to apologize even if they should as we both knew it wasn't sincere. God is good about that too, He'll let you wait, but the Holy Spirit won't let you rest! It's always in the back of your mind that you should apologize and make things right even when you weren't necessarily in the wrong, but your behaviors didn't line up with God's way of doing things.
     So I apologized, but it took me days and lots of self-talk. I kept wanting to justify my behaviors. But what the Holy Spirit reminded me of gently but continually was that, I'm not called to be responsible for any one's actions except my own. When I get to heaven God won't ask, "How did other people treat you?" Rather He'll ask me, "How did you treat others?" Finally, I did the right thing, because it was the right thing to do and although it took a lot of coaxing to get myself to do it, I feel energized and renewed in my spirit now. Thank you Lord for convincing me to face my deeds and fess up to my own poor behaviors.