Forgiveness - No Better Gift

We all make mistakes. However, every now and then we do something really, really stupid and we can't call it a mistake! It was planned and we thought, well thought out.

It wasn't.

It was bad judgement.

I had a day like this last week.

People who know me well know that I love April first. It's always been one of my favorite days of the year. My family and friends take the time to remind each other of the day. They usually scatter on this day and try to stay out of my view. They take turns keeping an eye on my whereabouts. Most of them at some point in time have been victims of a Laurie Paisley April Fools joke. I can recall most of the harmless April Fool's pranks I pulled on people from my elementary school days through adulthood. They've all been harmless.

Until last week.

I'm not going to go into the details of the day but trust me when I say, in looking back, the prank was thoughtless, not amusing, harmful and potentially disastrous. Disastrous because I damaged an amazing friendship and almost lost a very important person in my life. When I realized the damage I had done I apologized but realized an apology wasn't going to be enough. For several days I was literally sick. I had messed up and messed up in a big way. There was nothing I could do to fix things.

It was out of my hands.

My friend was the only one who could repair the damage that I had done. Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? I was at fault, he/she was the victim but I couldn't repair the damage to the relationship....

There was only one thing that could take away the pit in my stomach, the sleepless nights and the ache I had in my heart....his/her forgiveness.

After five silent days and a ton of prayers, I heard from my friend. Words cannot describe the feeling I had when I saw that email in my in box. It took several email exchanges to get it settled. I deserved every bit of the disappointed tone and lecture I received. In fact, I welcomed it! When it was all said and done I felt relief like I have never felt before.

I am so grateful to my friend who found it in his/her heart to forgive me. I would have suffered for a long time without that forgiveness. It's exhausting and painful to carry a load of regret around for any length of time.

If you have strained relationships with friends or family members, I encourage you to put your anger and hurt aside and find it in your heart to forgive.

Forgiveness - There is no greater gift that you can give.

Thank you for your gift!