Does my saying, “it’s okay” or “it’s not that bad” make my sin less burdensome, reducing its weight or gravity to something tolerable?  How many times have I run helter skelter over someone’s feelings, because it suited my mood or purpose at the time only to expect them to “be the better of us both” and forgive me right out, with rapid offer of apology?  Do I really get to have it that way, just because those Brothers and Sisters I reside with will assuredly give me pardon?  I am so sorry Father, for I know this is not how you’ve directed me to behave.  Please do not allow me to take forgiveness for granted or underestimate the power of true humility.  Please teach me to be gentle in advance so that I may not have offer apology, for right treatment of others, with love and kindness, requires no apology.  Lord forgive me as I forgive others and let me understand the blessing associated with forgiveness.

I so desire to look at life in the same, joyful yet conscious fashion.  There is so much for which my guilt has brought me into right thinking that I would have much preferred to have never undertaken.  Committing sin and then being sorry for it is so tiresome.  Lord I pray for sanctification and resemblance to Christ so that I no longer have to feel this agony of a guilty heart.  Do not let me condone behavior in myself or others which I know offends You or grieves Your Spirit.  Let me straightforward in loving kindness without departing from Your Will or commands.  Teach me the right boundaries between love, tolerance and repudiation.  Let me maintain the joy of being a child but lose those qualities of dishonesty, greed and self-concentration that lead to a demanding nature.  Let no tantrum, negative speech, malignancy, contempt or anger escape the restraining bridle of my lips.  Teach me to love without need for apology, to treasure forgiveness as a rarity.

Am I aiming too high, Father.  Must I stumble through this entire life as if with two left feet, tripping over, stepping upon and smashing the toes of so many unsuspecting brethren?  May I see some finesse in my twilight that has heretofore escaped my mastery.  I can see that it is something You are going to have to do, because it just seems to remain beyond my current understanding.   Forgive me for being so difficult to teach.  In Jesus Name.