Snow Days and Forgiveness

We are having our second snow day of the year in Toledo. It's nothing compared to the "Snowmageddon" they are experiencing in DC and the mid-Atlantic states, but my kids are home from school, playing with the neighbor kids and getting a bit stir crazy. So, by 11 a.m. of day two we had a fight, and then a melt down, complete with a stand off with mom, one child being sent to their room, slamming doors, the whole nine yards. All because the kids got into a fight over who-knows-what.

The children were separated, and given a "time out." Wouldn't it be nice if God had the power just to give us a time out, when we act like children, and fight, and stomp our feet, and need just to go to our rooms, and chill out for a few minutes? Some of us manage to do this on our own. My friend, Bishop Judy Craig, used to say when things got really tough in the Bishop's office, she would sometimes just push her chair back from her desk, close her eyes and take a big breath and give the situation to God. I'd call that a "time out" of the best kind.

In less than 10 minutes this morning, my children made their peace. One wrote a message to the others on a dry erase board: "I'm sorry and if you never speak to me again I understand," to which the other two wrote, "We forgive you :-)" And they were off again to play.

Oh, if we adults could practice the act of forgiveness so simply. We will make mistakes. Jesus never expected us to have a life without conflict. He simply invites us to take a breath when we do. To ask for forgiveness. To forgive. And then to move on. The kids are headed outside to play in the snow now.

Ah, to be like a child, and have the ablity to fight, to take a breath, to forgive, and then go play in the snow! Blessing!