I wrote a blog a few years ago about a period of time when my daughter had a problem with apologizing. Actually, she didn’t have a problem with the act of apologizing, it was more of how she did it.

It went like this: I would get on to her for something, and she would respond by saying: “I’m sorry?” Eventually, I figured out what was making my skin crawl—her alleged apologies were presented as a question. The words were right, her heart was not.

Try it sometime during quarantine. When someone calls you out for being grouchy, respond with: “I’m sorry?” I bet they won’t love it.

We focus a lot on apologizing when our kids are young. But do we focus on the opportunity for forgiveness presented by an apology? Proverbs 19:11 reminds us that it’s not just good to forgive, but it’s to “one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

Rebecca Carrell joins me today to chat about forgiveness and praying it over our families. During these stay-at-home times, there will be a multitude of opportunities for apologies. And there will be equal opportunities for extending forgiveness. Let’s choose to pray forgiveness over our families and remember it’s a central message of the gospel—one that will have a lasting impact if modeled well.

Praying that quarantine is granting you many opportunities to speak truth to your children and allowing you the time to iron out some of the rough spots of parenting (like when apologizing and forgiving end up in the form of a question).

 

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