“Never ruin an apology by offering excuses.”

A thought by Jentezen Franklin from his book, Love Like You've Never Been Hurt: Hope, Healing and the Power of an Open Heart (p. 144). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) 

Jentezen has in this book dealt a lot with forgiven someone when they have hurt you but here he also deals with the need when you’ve hurt someone to ask for forgiveness and to apologize to them.

He says, “I have talked a lot about the importance and power of forgiveness when we have been hurt. I want to address the need for saying ‘I’m sorry’ when we are the ones who hurt others, whether we meant to or not.”

He goes on, “If you want to reconcile a relationship, you must be willing to say, ‘I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.’  ‘I’m sorry I said those things.’  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.’  ‘I’m sorry I got so angry.’”

He then says, “Here is another thought: Never ruin an apology by offering excuses. Never say, ‘I’m sorry, but . . .’ Apologize and mean it.

“We have all made mistakes and choices that we wish we could take back. But we can only move forward. Before you can truly move forward, you must humble yourself and repent. If the Holy Spirit prompts you to apologize, you certainly should. We are human. And we hurt others sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. Asking for forgiveness could be key in moving forward.

So, we want to move forward, don’t we?  Then we want to apologize when we have wronged someone, don’t we?

Yes, yes!