Ah...nothing like forgivenness!

I love watching how my kids interact. Sometimes I am amazed at how well they can play together...other times, it just plain scary! But in the aftermath of an incident, as a mom, I try to instill thoughtfulness and forgiveness for the wrong doing.

Typically, my youngest is the one crying from being inflicted by hurt, either emotional or otherwise. I comfort her and collect the other child and start trying to work out the issue. When I suggest for the other child to say sorry, my youngest runs to her and showers her with hugs and kisses before any words have a chance to leave their mouths. To my youngest, she believes that hugs and kisses are her way to forgive...and it doesn't matter to her if the other party isn't apologetic or not.

Hmmm...

As an adult that has had her share of pain, it gets quite easy to remove myself from the pain/person inflicted, ignore the offender or become bitter and not be able to let it go instead of hugging and kissing the other party, no matter how justified or sorry the other party is for their actions.
Being ignored sucks and hurts so much.
Being yelled at doesn't allow healing to begin.
Carrying wounds, emotional or physical, by accident or not, will not heal on their own. Why not hug and pray for those people that offend me? I believe when we have pain in our lives, it tends to rub off and hurt others. Maybe if they share their pain, they don't feel so alone. What if we hugged someone when we got hurt...before we had time to think and mull it over in our mind...

just saying...

If my daughter can do it...so should I!