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Podcast (real-stuff-my-dad-says): Play in new window | Download
In the reality show Survivor, lying and backstabbing is an inevitable part of the game. The crazy thing is when someone lies and hurts someone and then offers what my dad has often called a “non-apology”.
Sometimes saying, I’m sorry” just isn’t enough.
For real relationships to happen and for people to grow in their personal development, we need to be truly repentant – not just offering hollow words of, “I’m sorry”.
But, what is repentance?
It is turning away from something and changing your behavior – which is predicated by recognizing that you truly did something wrong in the first place.
Sadly, our first reaction is often to try and justify our bad behaviors instead of owning up to them and humbly saying that we did something wrong.
This has led to a society where we don’t’ like to talk about our moral behavior – much less our responsibility for our moral behavior. We’d rather dole out excuses for “moral shortcomings” to justify our misdeeds.
But, if we can be honest enough, humble enough, bold enough to not just say, “I’m sorry” when we’ve wronged someone, but truly be repentant and turn away from those actions, then we can grow, mature and love as God has intended for us to.
But can we be repentant if we make the same mistake twice? Three times? Over and over again?
It all boils down to our heart attitude. When we remain self-centered, like a child, then we only focus on ourselves and what we didn’t get out of a situation. We’ll never grow and mature if we only focus on ourselves. But when we learn to put others first, even if we make the same mistakes over and over again, our hearts will be filled with more and more conviction, our words and attitudes will be more and more humble and it will be evident that we will strive to avoid those hurtful actions in the future. And that’s repentance.