I'm Sorry

It's just two little words, but often they are the two hardest words for us to say.  "I'm sorry!"

For most of my life I was one of those people who just couldn't say "I'm sorry."  I had grown up with the idea that I had to be pretty much perfect (NOT that I WAS perfect; just that I SHOULD be).  I was a first child, and a girl to boot, and I felt some pretty heavy expectations when I was growing up.  I never did have a chance to check out with my mom if those expectations were real or not, but I think that somewhere in my silly little brain, I equated saying "I'm sorry" with being imperfect--which definitely did NOT fit the expectations.  Crazy, I know, but that's how it was!!

Thankfully time teaches us many things, and one of the greatest lessons I've learned over the past 15 or so years is that it is so easy to say, "I'm sorry"--and to really mean it.  A part of that has been my learning that I live amidst an imperfect people.  No one of us is perfect.  We are all broken people.  And, it does, in fact, take a lot more energy to be perfect all of the time than it does to just be our imperfect selves--not to mention that it's way less fun!

I've also learned that when I do hurt someone else, mending the relationship is a whole lot easier when we begin with "I'm sorry."  So, imperfect one that I am, I keep stumbling along, doing my best to be in relationship with others and with God.  Some days I manage just fine.  Other days--not so great.  But most days, now, saving face and being perfect are far less important than maintaining good relationships.

I think that's what God intended when God created us:  not that we be perfect people, but that we be people who can learn to live with each other; with creation; and with God.  Saying "I'm sorry" is just one learning that helps make the living that much easier.

Thank God for the chance to hold on to our friends, and make new ones, with just two little words:

I'm sorry.