One night as my husband and I strolled along a riverwalk, a young couple passed by, pushing a stroller alongside an energetic little boy. As small children often do, the child stuck out both arms like an airplane and began to "soar" in circles as he made jet engine sounds. But then, he did the unthinkable in his mother's eyes. He ran onto some wet grass.

She shouted at him to get off the grass and he quickly obeyed with an "I'm sorry, mommy!" Good 'nuff for most moms but not this one. She growled at him, "Sorry doesn't fix it. Sorry doesn't make it go away. You're in trouble, buddy."

We were shocked and dismayed. If saying "I'm sorry" doesn't fix anything then why bother to say it at all?

Same in marriage. While saying "I'm sorry" may not fix everything or make all the pains and problems go away, it should matter. Heartfelt repentance should be a healing salve for mistakes.

We should be able to accept someone's sincere apology, forgive because we love and start all over again. But some people find it hard to accept an apology and equally hard to offer one. It really isn't as hard as it seems.

Here's the latest article from the Marriage site at BellaOnline.com.

How to Say I'm Sorry
Do you find it hard to apologize? There are many ways to say “I’m sorry” but they all have one requisite: You must mean it.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art987.asp

Please visit marriage.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Marriage.

To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Marriage located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=37

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Until next time,

Lori Phillips, Marriage Editor
http://marriage.bellaonline.com

One of hundreds of sites at BellaOnline.com