I don’t know about you but my kids either are too willing to say sorry or they are unable to apologise, our youngest has to be put on a time out area and even then may not be willing to say “sorry”!
At times i get annoyed at people who apologise for something, i wanna reply “if you were sorry you wouldn’t ask!” or “if you were really sorry you wouldn’t keep doing it!” but that would be unkind, which is why I have yet to actually voice those thoughts!
There are two passages that come to mind when thinking about this:-
Firstly,
But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
If we blurt “i’m sorry” too much it becomes meaningless and like the boy who cried wolf, people will stop believing you!
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Probably one of the hardest challenges Jesus set us, “forgive your brother and don’t stop!” (forgiving 490 times is hard enough!) This is not to say, you should allow yourself to be abused or remain in situations which will cause you harm! But as many Christ-following parents of youths that have been murdered or attacked, we may come to a point of realising that our own sin has offended God and his amazing grace has set us free, (easier said than done) but like the parable of ungrateful servant (which follows Jesus telling us how many times to forgive) we have been forgiven so much, so why wouldn’t we want to be forgiving too?!
The part of the “Lord’s prayer” where it says
Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.
That is to be read as “you forgave me and are dealing with my mistakes, so likewise we are going to forgive others at the same time as you are dealing with my sin”
Sorry often seems too cheap, but if you have ever had someone “do you wrong” or have “done wrong” to another person you will be well aware that forgiveness and “moving on” after the offence or act has been committed is not easy or a quick process!
We are called to repent, the greek word is metanoia, which is roughly translated as “after-thought”. We need to think about our actions and if they have affected others, feel remorse and be determined not to make the same error again!
