Guest Author - Michelle Pendergrass

Do you keep your pride in check when it comes to apologizing? Ugly pride is rampant in society, but have you ever stopped to think about whether or not it is running wild in your life?

Doing the mom thing is sometimes frustrating. We try to keep it all together while marking off the checklist of daily things to do, which frankly is often times enough to make the best of us want to crawl back into our beds and just sleep the day away. I was having one of those days, you know what I'm talking about. Kids must have a "Mom's frustrated" sensor that propels them to push all buttons and chew at raw nerves. They just know.

Pass the bad mom award. I yelled at my son, I made him cry. Wrapped up in my list of phone calls, chores, problems to solve and everything else, he was the one I lashed out at. Did I do that to the woman on the phone? Nope. Treating a stranger nice is great, but at the sacrifice of my son? Bad idea.

The day didn't get any better. When my husband got home from work, I overheard my son telling him how mean I had been and he started crying again. Pass the bad wife and mom award. Again. I lashed out at both of them.

Its a good thing God is merciful. I don't deserve Him or the husband and son He gave me. After I threw my little temper tantrum, I resided to my bedroom, flopped on the bed and fumed. As I tossed around how wrong they were, how unfair they were being to me, that soft, still voice came through.

I apologized first to God for not taking time to be with Him that day. Then I went out to the living room and asked my husband and son for forgiveness.

Pride is so disgusting. I was so worried about making these insignificant check marks on my to do list, that I hurt the two people I love most in this world. Imagine what that looks like without apologies. It probably goes without saying that any relationship without due apologies is a struggling relationship. When we hurt those we love, we need to cover that pride in humility and apologize.