Accidents... they happen

Today I had a little accident. I was pulling into a parking space at Denny's and I miss judged the distance and I ended up putting a smallish, but notice able dent in a woman's car and broke part of the light covering. I was so shook up, I felt like a complete idiot. My aunt was with me, helping guide me through it. The lady who's car I dented was shaken up a bit too, she had a friend helping her too. After I gave her my information, I just wanted to get in my car and go some where else. I had to work in an hour, I wanted to call in sick, go crawl in bed and wallow in my extremely minor accident. The woman seemed to be doing better with it then me.

Guilt, I think is the point of this posting. Going into the restaurant I walked in with the woman and her family and friend. I felt so awkward and ashamed. My cousins had already gotten a table and I wanted to see if we could give this woman and her family our table but I was still just guilt ridden and wanted to do anything to know that it all really was OKAY. As I was driving to work I was thinking maybe I could also offer free baby sitting, but then I thought maybe I'm over thinking this.

Forgiveness is the other part of this post, while the lady was telling me it's okay, be careful next time; I couldn't help but doubt her sincerity. That is how deep my guilt runs, to the point that I have difficulty forgiving myself for a minor dent. Had it been my car, I would have just let it go, maybe just ask the person for some money.

Before eating we prayed and my aunt asked God to be in this situation and to give me the strength to get through the day. I believe that our God is a forgiving God, sometimes more forgiving than we are of our selves. We are always worried about the judgments of others, but the judgments we place on ourselves can be even more of a burden to us. While we cannot disregard the judgments of others altogether we have to keep life in perspective, in the end the final judge is God. He knows our hearts.

Our actions should be driven by guilt, but rather by the knowledge and belief that what we are doing is the right thing, that it is what God would want us to do. We should approach things with a humble heart, not a guilty one.