Beckies Spot

As children, when we do something that could be taken as offensive, or we disobey, we are told to apologize.  “Say you’re sorry.”  And we say it for fear of, yet again, disobeying.  But do we know what we are saying ’sorry’ for?  Do we even know what “sorry” means?  Someone wise once told me that you can’t truly apologize for something if you are only doing it because you got caught, or because someone told you to.  He also said that if you are apologizing, you cannot be a ‘repeat’ offender.  What the heck did that mean?  You cannot apologize for something, trun around and repeat the offense and expect an apology to be accepted.  Was he right?  Yes.

When we are saying “I’m sorry,” we are saying it because we truly are regretting what we have done.  We are acknowledging what we have done, we are asking for forgiveness and we are going to do our best not to do it again.  So why do some people have such a hard time with this?  In our families, friendships, and out there in the criminal world.  You would think people would learn.

Being given the gift of forgiveness is like a get out of jail free card…..but some people just don’t care to use it.  They repeat the same transgressions over and over again, until forgiveness is no long an option.  And then they wonder why.

Perhaps gaining some accountability would allow these repeat offenders to take responsibility for themselves, and then the chain could end.