Forgiveness (lessons from a 3 year old).

Harley is a little girl at the CDC who stays after school until about 4:30 every day... i.e. Kim and I spend a LOT of time with her. She tries to go barefoot on a regular basis, but we never let her because it's against the rules. We're on the playground today and she's taken off her flip flops again. I tell her, "You need to put your shoes back on or we're going to have to go back inside." She doesn't do anything. I say, "You have until the count of 3 to get your shoes back on or we're going inside... 1... 2... 3." She gets her shoes in her hand and is putting them on in time while whining about it. Then she says, "I'm mad at you! You counted at me!" I replied, "Well, you weren't putting your shoes back on, so that's what I needed to do." Then I left her alone while she played on the jungle gym.

A few minutes went by and she said, "I want to race you." I responded with, "I thought you were mad at me." To this she said, "I'm not mad at you." Kim and I laughed about how easy forgiveness is for a 3 year old and I went over to race her. Then she told me, "You're my best friend," and my heart melted a little, of course. I think our lives would be so much better if we could forgive and forget as easily as that little girl.