My wife and I have been working with our daughter on the appropriate manner in which to accept an apology. When she was younger, we encouraged her after someone apologized to say something like “That’s OK.” As Clare has grown older, though, we have been teaching her to say instead, “I forgive you, but please don’t do that again.” We have tried to direct this slight shift as a way to teach her that while we should forgive people, we also need to be present in helping them learn that certain behaviors should not be repeated.
Many of us have experienced times in our lives when we keep coming back to the same sin. We know that what we have done is wrong, that God desires we cease our sin, and even more that we desire a change in our hearts and actions. For some reason or another, though, that change does not occur. In those moments, our lives feel like they are being dragged downward, as though a great weight rests upon our very souls and pushes. As we continue to live in this cycle where “What I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15), we often come to believe that everything in our lives is spinning out of control.
In the midst of these times of trying to break free, however, we can see glimmers of hope when we look toward heaven or bow our heads to the ground and simply say, “Forgive me, God.” The most beautiful thing we know about the Lord is that He offers us forgiveness of our sins, and His grace continues to shower down upon us each and every day. “‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” God’s desire for us is not that we be forever punished nor that we continue in the downward spiral of continuous sin. Instead the Lord seeks to wash us clean and direct our spirits until there is no more deceit within us.