Forgiveness

I picked up my 4yr old from Sunbeams on Sunday to be greeted with knowing smiles from her teachers and a card from my daughter. I thought nothing of it.

As I packed my bags in primary Olivia tells me, "Mommy I love you THIS much!" and holds her hands about 12 inches apart. I smiled thinking, oh how sweet, and wanting to play her game told her, "I love you THIS much!" and stretched my arms as far as I could.

Then Olivia tells me, "Mommy, I only love you medium because sometimes you're mean to me."

I was slightly crushed to say the least and asked, "when am I mean to you?"

She explained that I'm mean to her when I yell at her when she makes bad choices. I told her that's not being mean that's being a parent and trying to help her make better choices.

Then I noticed the hand-crafted necklace she was wearing. It read, "I can be like Jesus and forgive others".

Suddenly the pieces started coming together.

I asked my 4 yr old if they learned about forgiving people who are mean to them and if she told her class that i was mean to her and if they were to color pictures for the person they were forgiving for being mean to them.

To my utter horror she answered yes to all of the above.

nice.

I swallowed back 2 tears and declared it a bad day to be a mom.

Then it was time for forgiveness.

Perhaps its easier to be forgiving though when you're wearing a neon necklace with a picture of Jesus on it.