The Family Virtues Guide: Forgiveness

This is a virtue which the kids understand in theory, but have a very hard time practicing it. They don't hold any long time grudges, or seek out planned revenge on anyone. They are however, quick to think that whatever happened was premeditated instead of an accident or a thoughtless happening.

Kate has the hardest time with this.

It seems like it is always Kate. A good word to describe Kate would be MORE. Simply MORE. She is more loving, more mean, more kind and thoughtful, more careless, more helpful, more lazy. She is a girl of extremes and she seems to feel everything more deeply than everyone else in the family. She is truly hurt to the core when someone says something mean to her. She is very empathetic to other people's situations. She is also very quick to anger and slow to forgive when one of her siblings does something to her - even if it is an accident. I tried very hard to make her understand forgiveness today and I hope that she in particular, practices it this week.

Here is a poem that I read to the girls:

To forgive
Is not to forget.

To forgive
Is really to remember

That nobody is perfect

That each of us stumbles
When we want so much to stay upright

That each of us says things
We wish we had never said

That we can all forget that love
Is more important than being right.

To forgive
Is really to remember

That we are so much more
Than our mistakes

That we are often more kind and caring
That accepting another's flaws
Can help us accept our own.

To forgive
Is to remember

That the odds are pretty good that
We might soon need to be forgiven ourselves.

That life sometimes gives us more
Than we can handle gracefully.

To forgive
Is to remember

That we have room in our hearts to
Begin again

And again,

And again.

~~ Author Unknown ~~

The affirmation for today:
I am forgiving of myself and others. I learn from my mistakes. I have the power to keep changing for the better.