Genuine Repentance

Have you ever seen genuine repentance? I mean real, honest, from the heart, true sorrow for something done? I have. Just last night. It was break your heart repentance.

You see, last night about 7:30 I discovered some very serious mischief my 4 year old had been in. I'll not blab her sins for all the world to read, but I will say it was uncharacteristic of her and she's very lucky we were able to reverse the damage. So, as a parent, when you discover such a "crime", what do you do? I was so mad I didn't know what to do. Michael was at practice, so I did what I thought best. I sent her to bed until her "father" came home. (Ooohhh that sounds eerily like something my mom would've said!)

When Michael got home we talked over the punishment and consequences and then he went up to get her. When all was done and we had packed up the items used to do the damage, she suddenly realized the consequences of her choices. Michael leaned over to lift the boxes and her little face crumbled in tears. "But I won't have anything to do!" she said in a sad and sorry voice. Then she covered her face and ran to her room. It broke my heart to watch her go, but she came back on her own.

She lifted those brown eyes full of tears up to meet ours and with a shake of her head, she said, "I'm so sorry I........" Watching that raw emotion was more than I could bear and the tears began to roll down my face too. We accepted her apology with forgiveness and hugs.

I'm sure there's a parallel to our lives and God and forgiveness and the grief our sin causes Him....