I AM SORRY

Once there was a man who had 3 daughters and was a single parent to his
children. One morning he asked his oldest daughter, Sonia, to do the
breakfast dishes before going to school. Not realizing that she was
already
running late and facing too many tardy notices, he was stunned by her
reaction. She burst into profuse tears. Again, misinterpreting the
motive
behind the outburst, assuming that she was merely trying to get out of
an
unpleasant chore, he demanded that she dry her tears and get back to
work
immediately. She reluctantly obeyed him, but her anger could be clearly
heard
in the careless clanking of the dishes in the sink, she turned back to
her
father and stared sullenly out the window. Usually the man use to take
advantage of the uninterrupted time to spend with his children while
driving
them to school by teaching poetry or religious verses. However that
morning
there was no songs- only deathly, stubborn silence. The man dropped his
daughter, mumbled a good bye and moved to office. He tried to work but
couldn't concentrate all he could see was his daughter's scared,
tear-stained
face as she hesitantly climbed out of the car to face her teachers and
classmates. The man began to realize that his timing had gone wrong and
with the passage of the day he began to feel remorseful. So he decided
to
say SORRY to his daughter and couldn't wait till suppertime to
apologize. So
he took permission from the school to take his daughter for lunch and
was
astonished to see the surprise on her face. He led her by her arm
through the
corridor and as the doors banged behind them, he turned towards his
daughter and said, "Sonia I am sorry. I am so very sorry! It's not that
I
shouldn't have asked you to help out at home, but I had no right on it
this
morning without any previous warning. I upset you at a time when you
most
needed my love and support- just before you went to school. And I let
you go
without saying 'I love you'. I was wrong. Please forgive me."
Sonia put her arms around her father's neck and hugged him and said "Oh,
Dad, of course I forgive you. I love you too."
The power of these restorative words, "I am Sorry!" is such that they
heal
relationships – between us and our friends and loved ones, and between
us
and God.