Forgive Me...

(Today's celebrity guest writer is The Rev. Elizabeth Miller. She is a proud preacher's kid and a vocational deacon. She serves as Coordinator of the Trinity Soup Kitchen, organizing the army of volunteers who feed an average of 150 hungry guests Monday-Friday.) 

Today is March fourth, the anniversary of my Father's ordination.  

Forgive me Father for I have sinned.....Oh boy, I sure did and still do.  No matter how bad  my behavior was, my parents always forgave me.  Sometimes after a stern talking to and  sometimes not,  realizing the price I was already paying was enough.  

Our upbringing molds us into the people we will become as adults.  Role models are  important.   It is true that children learn what they live.  Nowhere is that more evident than with the population that I work with as an adult servant of Christ in the soup kitchen.

I never experienced the lack of love and caring that children of abusive parents or run away throw away children come to understand. The survival skills of a homeless child.  The walls of armor around these adults are thick and hard to penetrate.  Some fortified by drugs or alcohol.

Sometimes,  by the grace of God, there is a break through, when you say the right thing or stay available longer than anyone ever has been.  Love is the answer.  Even when people behave in unlovable ways.

Forgive me, my heavenly Father, for ever forgetting my blessings. Help me to pass them on to all I meet who are in need.