“I AM SORRY”
Once there was a man who had 3 daughters and was a single parent to his children. One morning he asked his oldest daughter, Sonia, to do the breakfast dishes before going to school. Not realizing that she was already running late and facing too many tardy notices, he was stunned by her reaction. She burst into profuse tears. Again, misinterpreting the motive behind the outburst, assuming that she was merely trying to get out of an unpleasant chore, he demanded that she dry her tears and get back to work immediately. She reluctantly obeyed him, but her anger could be clearly heard in the careless clanking of the dishes in the sink, she turned back to her father and stared sullenly out the window.
Usually
the man used to take advantage of the uninterrupted time to spend with his
children while driving them to school by teaching poetry or religious verses.
However that morning there was no songs- only deathly, stubborn silence. The
man dropped his daughter, mumbled a good bye and moved to office. He tried to
work but couldn’t concentrate all he could see was his daughter’s scared,
tear-stained face as she hesitantly climbed out of the car to face her teachers
and classmates. The man began to realize that his timing had gone wrong and
with the passage of the day he began to feel remorseful. So he decided to say
SORRY to his daughter and couldn’t wait till suppertime to apologize. So he
took permission from the school to take his daughter for lunch and was
astonished to see the surprise on her face. He led her by her arm through the
corridor and as the doors banged behind them, he turned towards his daughter
and said, “Sonia I am sorry. I am so very sorry! It’s not that I shouldn’t have
asked you to help out at home, but I had no right on it this morning without
any previous warning. I upset you at a time when you most needed my love and
support- just before you went to school. And I let you go without saying ‘I
love you’. I was wrong. Please forgive me.”
Sonia put her arms
around her father’s neck and hugged him and said “Oh, Dad, of course I forgive
you. I love you too.”
The power of these
restorative words, “I am Sorry!” is such that they heal relationships – between
us and our friends and loved ones, and between us and God….. or whatever your belief
is.
Love the story about the Mother date :-)
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