Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. A few months ago, I made a mistake that I may never live down. One of those things any parent can do, but every parent feels absolutely terrible when they do it.

My daughter, she attends dance classes once a week, which means my wife and I need to do drop-offs

and pick-ups. Now, typically, my wife does both the drop-off and the pickup for dance, and I do the

same for my son when he does violin. So anyway, one Monday, my wife asked me to do pickup

because she couldn't for some reason.

And of course, I agreed, happy to go pick up Iris. But then something happened. I forgot.

Again, I don't normally do it, so it just fell off of my radar. My daughter's class ended,

and my wife wasn't there, and I wasn't there, and then five minutes passed, and then 10,

and then 15, and then 30, and I still wasn't there. It was then there and then five minutes passed and then 10, then 15, and then 30,

and I still wasn't there. It was then that my wife thought to call me and double check whether I'd picked her up. And let's just say, I'm glad there were no speed traps between my house and the

dance studio because I ended up getting there way, way, way too fast. She was the last kid there

with one adult in the dance studio. And she was obviously sad and scared. And I apologize to the teacher profusely and I rushed her into the car. And at that point, I start apologizing to her profusely. And my daughter, she's a tough kid. And generally, these kinds of things roll over her. She doesn't get too hung up on them. But I could tell

she was feeling a bit shaken. And again, I get it. I know lots of people with similar stories.

And while from an adult perspective, showing up 30 minutes late accidentally one time is in a

huge deal from a kid's perspective, it can be absolutely enormous. That's because what they

experienced waiting alone made them feel afraid.

That's because to a child, a parent not showing up quietly suggests that the child isn't really

seen, that the child isn't really valued, that the child doesn't matter. Now, of course,

none of those things are true. I simply wasn't used to picking her up at that time,

and I forgot. And in all the long years of our relationship, I've never forgotten her once before.

But I understand why one failure might overshadow years of faithfulness. And you know, since then,

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