I personally do not hear, regularly, any more people saying, “I’m sorry” when they have made an error or hurt someone. I also do not hear it said if they are not guilty of the offense but saying it nonetheless would be like a torrential rain fall during an extensive drought! What happened to the character trait of humility? Have we forgotten or were we never taught to be humble? Do we teach it to our children by leading by example?
I remember the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do”. But through out my walk with the Lord I have found that to be hypocritical and not the best way to represent the Father! I believe that we have been duped into believing that humility is a sign of weakness and that cannot be farther from the truth. It takes an enormous amount of inward strength to choose to not fight back when you know that you have every right to. It takes an incredible amount of strength to apologize when you know that the recipient does not deserve it.
When our family was living in Hawaii one of my neighbors accosted me and was screaming in my face about an incident that happened between our children. I had not too long before finished praying and I heard the Lord explain to me that He was going to prove the power of His word. The whole time her words were coming at me they felt like bullets being fired from a revolver. I almost felt immobile and suddenly I began to hear on the inside, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger”. (Proverbs 15: 1) I quickly began to speak but purposely lowered my voice and apologized and asked what I could do to make the situation better. She looked stunned and quickly began to lower her voice as well and finally we were able to get the situation sorted out and the problem resolved. God proved to me that day that the power of words we speak can be equally positive and negative. I knew that the things she was saying were not true and I could have stood there and argued my point. But in this situation, it was best to use water to extinguish the fire rather than gasoline! There is a unique kind of gasoline, and its name is pride. That day I chose not to use it!
There was another incident recently involving one of my children and I was wrong. I spoke wrongly and after I had calmed down, I had to call back and apologize for my attitude. Was it easy? Not exactly, but it was the right thing to do, and I did it. I had to eat a slice of humble pie. Thank God it was only a slice this time and not the whole pie! I had to make a humble apology and accept whatever consequences that come along with my actions. I had to do it! You see here was a teachable moment and even though my children are grown now I am still obligated to teach by example! I want to represent the Kingdom well…. follow me as I follow Christ!