Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Swallowing Pride

The other day Aubrey sinned against Owen. I do not remember the details of her wrong doing. I just remember correcting her and encouraging her to apologize to her brother. He was on the couch as she stood before him with me standing by her side. She agreed to ask for forgiveness and opened her mouth and said, "Owen, I'm sor-."

She stopped mid-word, looked up at me and said, "Mama, I just can't do it."
I shouldn't be surprised by this. She's being honest. Apologizing IS hard. It requires humility. Many times I have found myself in the same position as my two year old daughter. Knowing I had sinned against someone, knowing what I had to do to make it right and yet fighting it. Why? Humbling yourself is hard! Admitting your wrong is difficult, especially when you feel that you have been wronged also.
I am trying to teach my children what Ben often reminds me: it's better to win a person than it is to win an argument. I want my children to be quick to seek forgiveness and slow to find reasons to be offended. If they know they've wronged someone, I hope they will have the boldness and character to ask for forgiveness. If they are hurt or offended, I hope they will kindly share their hurts with the other person. It's easy to assume the worst, but I want to teach my children to instead assume the best in others. Look for the good!
Proverbs 11:2 says, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom."
I pray that I can model humility before my children. I hope they will learn at a young age that it is better to humble yourself before others then to stand proudly in your own defense.
And I'm happy to say that, at least on this day, Aubrey did humble herself and say, "Owen, I'm sorry." She even hugged his neck and kissed his cheek.

1 comments:

Melliedew said...

Your children are so precious! Owen followed me around for a short time on Sunday morning telling me how he strong he is, especially stronger than his cousins and sisters. We talked about how he is mighty like King David, and even threw in a little about the Lion King, too. It was cute! (On a side note, I was tagged in a post by Michelle from church, and since I only know a total of 3 bloggers, I had to tag you. So, feel free to ignore it, or check it out on my blog. carpentersthree.blogspot.com. See you Sunday! Oh, and thanks for the great example you already are to the young moms at SCC!