Life And Living Part 25.

Why Should I Apologise?

Life and Living

Part Twenty-Five

Our family members: parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles, plus any others, only live once. We, also, will only live once. One short lifetime.

Do we help make their lifetime pleasant, or do they find our company and conversation unpleasant? When we say or at least claim to be a Christian, we are responsible to Jesus to show ourselves Christlike.

When we were a child visiting family, we may have been told we were misbehaving either by our parents or by another family member we were seeing.

We were fortunate if we were asked (told) to tell the offended person we were sorry for what we said or did. That was a time to learn a lesson, hopefully, a long-lasting experience of giving and receiving an apology from both parties.

The one offended could have good thoughts about the offender because of the sincere apology made, while the offender, though humbled, could feel relief that the situation wasn't carried on and on.

Both the offender and the offended have roles to play in helping to make each other's lifetime pleasant. Pleasant means having no conflicts or unpleasant situations but truly pleasant lifetimes will have each unpleasantness end agreeable by the parties involved.

As we age (i.e., get older), we don't always carry what we learn as a child.

We may feel there is no need to apologize for something that should not have offended another person.

We may not know when a word or deed offends another person, but we must be ready and graciously willing to make amends, so the situation isn't carried on and on.

If a humble apology isn't tendered, emotions may build into anger, bitterness, or resentment.

Estrangements can occur. Future meetings may be dreaded.

"He'll just have to get over it." is not a satisfying answer to the problematic situation. Forgiveness on his part may require an apology on your part.

Pleasant lifetime Christian experiences can exist when humble apologies are given and received.

7/18/2020 Larry E. Whittington