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Key Bible Verse: In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent (Psalm 4:4). Bonus Reading: Ephesians 4:26-27

I blew up at Rachel about 45 minutes after she was supposed to be in bed. She kept lingering around the house. I yelled that she had 15 seconds to be in bed— I repeat, in her bed.

She went to bed crying as the hot lava of my wrath pursued her up the stairs. After I came back down, Mary told me Rachel had been preparing for a special event at school next morning.

I went back upstairs and asked her forgiveness. I felt like a real jerk. We prayed together, and I tucked her in and turned in also. But I couldn't drop off to sleep. I kept thinking of the enormous damage I could inflict on my ten-year-old without realizing it. The last thing I wanted to do was to crush her delicate spirit.

Although we had patched it up, I couldn't get her off my mind. I got up, drove to the 24-hour supermarket and bought a rose in a little vase and a card with a man peering out of a doghouse. I wrote a note telling Rachel I really loved her and was wrong, and placed them on the kitchen table. I figured after ruining her evening, the least I could do would be to make her day.

—Steve Farrar in Point Man

• Remember that forgiveness is always found after repentance. Take heart that you can be restored and healed.

Thought to Apply: Parents need to learn the difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul.

—ANONYMOUS

Credits: Adapted from—Wednesday: Point Man (Multnomah, 1990)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail mail@menofintegrity.net.
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