The Admission of Mistakes!

Once our former Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru attended a function near Bombay. After the function he walked into the crowd to greet people. The security were very busy controlling the crowd, which rushed forward to greet the Prime Minister.

Mohansingh Bayas was one among the police officers in charge of protecting the Prime Minister. He used his stick to control the crowd. Nehru suddenly snatched the stick and said angrily “What are you doing?” He ordered his bodyguards to remove the officer from the place.

Mohansingh Bayas was greatly hurt and felt humiliated. Later Nehru called Bayas to his guest house and humbly said, “I understand you are only following instructions… you were right and I was wrong. I’m sorry”. The police officer could not control the tears of joy. Nehru’s admission of his mistake showed his majesty and greatness, and not his weakness. As Christians, after having committed a mistake, do we admit our mistakes in our family?

On the failure to admit the mistakes in the family and its consequences, The Week (Oct 25, 1992) reported, “Countless marriages have been rocked because of the unwillingness of the husbands to admit errors. Though sometimes husbands think admission of errors reveal weakness, but the opposite is true”.

When one partner has hurt the other partner, then a humble admission of mistakes will produce positive results and great healing. When a husband hurts his wife and then admits his mistake, his wife feels deeply. She begins to love her husband more, because she feels that he understands her fully.

For healthy and strong family relationships, the following three elements of forgiveness are needed.

• Asking forgiveness: When one partner commits a mistake or hurts the other, then the partner must have the humility to ask for forgiveness. This is an important element of building relationships. Our relationship with the heavenly Father starts only when we ask forgiveness. Hence for a sound relationship between husband and wife or the parents and the children, asking forgiveness is the first and primary requirement. 
• Forgiving others: The next element of forgiveness is the ability to forgive the other partner, when there is admission of mistakes. The Bible says that we should forgive others when there is a repentance Luke 17:3-4, and forgive again and again Matt 18:21. 
• Forgetting the mistakes: For a smooth and steady relationship between partners, both of them must have the ability to forget the trespasses of the other. This is because our heavenly Father not only forgives our sins but also forgets them. The Bible says that the Lord will have no account of our sins and lawless deeds Heb 10:17.