When you have a teenager in the house, the entire household is in a constant flurry of activity, text messages, clothes tried on and discarded, food, more food and music…music at decibels that would have created a second pathway across the River Jordan.
My 2-year old son, sponge-like in his intensity yet seemingly indifferent to everything around him, came home one day singing something under his breath.
“It’s tu leet t’pologize. Tu leet!” he sings. My heart crumbles. He sings like a little big man, y’know? Amazing how young minds can literally suck in and process everything that go on around them.
Hours later, his voice is still in my head. It’s a big song for a two-year old, and my mind turns to the rest of the lyrics.
I’d take another chance, take a fall
Take a shot for you
And I need you like a heart needs a beat
But it’s nothin new
I loved you with a fire red-
Now it’s turning blue, and you say…
“Sorry” like the angel heaven let me think was you
But I’m afraid…It’s too late to apologize, it’s too late
I said it’s too late to apologize, it’s too late
Singable, danceable, swingable. The song humbled me.
We are given an entire lifetime to “apologize” to Heavenly Father for all the stupid things that we do. You ever felt that most of the time, you took too long to do it? I do.
Quick repentance turns a lot of possible heartaches into proud moments. It’s the equivalent of a quick-response system after a big storm. When we use it quickly — the moment we realize the mistake not the next day or the next week — it helps us bounce back immediately. It stops us from sliding into the dark abyss.
My biggest regret is that I have never been good at figuring out how to quickly use this stopper.
But I know this is so. In my not-so-proud moments, only repentance and the image of Gethsemane saved me. Holding on to hope that it’s not “too late to apologize” to a loving Heavenly Father, who is ever-ready to extend loving arms to the one with broken heart and a contrite spirit.
