Forgive and Be Forgiven

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. I am scrapping a morning workout in favor of sitting on my back porch enjoying the crisp 50 degree temperatures...watching the sun as it continues to make its way high into the sky. And I'm not even feeling guilty about nixing the workout. I'll do it tomorrow.

It was another busy weekend...5 more soccer games. The kids are loving it, and it's been quite enjoyable as the weather was lovely. The downside is that the laundry isn't getting done. Oh well. I'll get to that tomorrow, too.

Priya has improved by leaps and bounds since last season.
She's a real go-getter.

Trevor is a fierce machine on the field.

Deven's determined look.

Earlier that morning he'd asked me to pull out his loose tooth.
So I did. Just in time for soccer pictures.

Interesting how things can turn on a time. Minutes after I published last week's "Perfect Protest" post I left the house to meet my mom and sister for lunch. I was almost out of the neighborhood when I realized I had forgotten Trevor's soccer gear for that afternoon's practice. I returned home, grabbed Trevor's soccer bag, and threw it in the back of the truck. I began to pull out of the garage when a startling noise made me abruptly slam on the breaks. I had forgotten to put the back hatch down...and the hatch got stuck on the open garage door. Black. Glass. Had. Shattered. Everywhere.

I sat in the car for about 5 minutes in disbelief before the tears started. I called my sister to tell her I would not be joining them for lunch. I called my hubby (who was very understanding as I blubbered about what had happened), and then I called the insurance company.



After I had calmed down, I stared at the disastrous mess for a long time. Finally, I decided it was time for me to get to work cleaning up. I searched high and low for our industrial-sized broom. I swept some. I went inside for a bandaid where a sliver of glass had lodged itself in 2 different fingers. Then I checked email. Then I swept a little more. Then I decided it was lunchtime. I ate leftover lasagna. I had a piece of pumpkin cake with a giant glass of milk. I swept a little more. I went inside to tweeze out another small sliver of glass from my pinky toe (open-hole Crocs aren't ideal glass-sweeping shoes). I changed shoes. Then I swept until it was time to pick up the kids from school.

Later that afternoon I thought a lot about why I had no motivation to just tackle the task at hand...and it was enormous task. Glass was everywhere. We are still finding pieces. I came to the conclusion that I was so angry with myself for doing something I perceived to be so stupid (that's a bad word in our house...) that I simply couldn't face it.

I also realized that I wouldn't want my children to call themselves the kind of names I had called myself. What do I ask of my kids when they make a mistake? They should apologize, if necessary, and problem-solve. And learn from that mistake the best they can.

When I finally decided to take my own advice, it was about 10pm that evening. While it was too late to go back outside to finish the job (it would take days...), I went to bed feeling peaceful. Because peace is what is experienced when forgiveness has occurred. Yes, I went to bed after having forgiven myself. It was a restful night's sleep.

Then, as if I hadn't already learned my lesson, our pastor preached one heck of a sermon yesterday. He emphasized that we cannot fully worship God without extending peace and reconciliation to our enemies (or people we have issues with). He said that if we are not breaking down the hostility that divides us between our enemies, then we are not about the Word.

Once again...a message about forgiveness. Think the man upstairs is trying to tell me something?