“Am I a bad kid?” He stopped on the stairs and stared up at me with honest, but sad eyes. As a member of the “emotional support” class, he probably voiced a thought held by many of his peers. This was his second classroom of the school year and I was the fifth person who had been assigned to work with him one on one. I bent down, looked him directly in the eyes, and said: “No, you are not a bad kid. You are a good kid. You just find it hard to behave appropriately at times.”
For me the biggest obstacle to forgiving myself is that I think that I am “bad.” I think that my actions, my sins, are what I am, and determine what I am worth. However, I am more than the sum total of my acts. It can be hard to accept that God sees me differently. God sees that I am a broken, hurt, hurting, and hurtful child of God, and forgives me and loves me in spite of myself and because of myself. How can I not forgive myself, if I have already been forgiven?
-- Kathleen Knaack
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