How we Apologize in our Home...

I live with a bunch of sinners. *gasp*

Seriously I do! A whole house full. Including Brandon and I.

And oh boy do we have lots of opportunities to learn how to apologize!

I apologize to my children... often. It keeps me humble.

In our house, we apologize by saying what we did wrong. We confess it *all*. We don't cherry pick a the easiest thing to apologize for.

We say how truly sorry we are.

We avoid the word BUT.

For example: I'm truly sorry I yelled at you, but you are annoying!

Yeah.. that doesn't fly.

"But" has a way of undoing everything in front of it.

Wanna see?

"I'm so sorry that I didn't discuss this with you when I found out. But you always get short with me when I do discuss this topic with you."

See that shift of blame?

Here's another thing. We don't blame the Enemy.

"I'm sorry you were hurt, Satan caused it. "

Here at the Bee House, we believe in Free Will. Satan may have tempted you, but YOU chose your path or action.

No matter how poorly one apologizes, forgiveness is your responsibility. It doesn't mean that you weren't wronged. It doesn't mean that they apologized the right way. Maybe the person isn't even repentant. But YOUR burden is forgiving. Some times it take time. Sometimes it takes a long, long time. But leave it at the foot of the Cross over and over as many times as you need to. One day you'll realize it stayed there.

A Humble Sinner,

Stephanie

PS: For those that worry, nothing in my home sparked this. Brandon and I are fine and our children are happy little clams. Julianne and Lainey have Christmas programs tomorrow. Something came up among a group of friends and I started thinking about whether or not I'm teaching my children how to apologize correctly. Just thought I'd share. ;)

I Mispoke...

On September 16th, as I wrote my blog post, one handed in the wee hours of the morning, I mispoke. And I'd like the opportunity to correct it.

I wrote: "The ONLY thing Brandon and I are promised is that we will go to Heaven as Believers."

This is not true. We are promised more than just to go to Heaven. But first I would like to share how God put this particular post on my heart in an effort to show how loving God has been to me.

A few days ago it rained... I mean it POURED! And after the rain we saw a rainbow. Several of my friends were thoughtful and put their pictures of the rainbow from their view on Facebook for all to see. Turns out there was a rainbow here in Richmond and in my hometown of Augusta, Georgia at the same time. Neat huh?

Rainbows have always, always been one of my favorite things about nature. In fact, one day as I was in a drab hospital nursery I looked out past the nurses station and saw a double rainbow from the rocking chair where I was cudding and getting to know Xander. It was a breathtaking moment that I hope I never forget!

Anywho.. as I looked at everyone's pictures of the rainbow, I felt a gentle nudging. The biblical significance of the rainbow is in Genesis chapter 9. God promised Noah that He would never again flood the earth to kill everything.

Ahhhh.. yes.. a promise. And it was then that words that I quoted above ran through my head and I realized that I had mispoken. *gulp*

What I meant to say is that we aren't promised an easy life. We aren't promised a job promotion. We aren't promised that because we believe in God that everything will go our way. So I'll be editing my post from Sept 16th and I ask for your understanding and forgiveness.

I never intended to say that God has only promised us Heaven.

God has made MANY promises- they are all throughout the Bible!

Humbly,
Stephanie