This Week's Story
click here to play audioI was amazed that Mom was so humble and strong that she apologized to me.
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
Please forgive me.
Our bedroom door opened quietly, and Mom came in to say “good-night.” Linda was sleeping. Mom gently kissed her and walked to the bunk beds. Connie was on the bottom and received a kiss and the words, “Good-night, precious.”
Then Mom’s chin was level with my top bunk. She looked at me and said, “Sweetheart, I am sorry for being impatient with you today. Please forgive me.”
I did. I was amazed that Mom was so humble and strong that she apologized to me. I knew her apology was genuine. Daily I saw her desire to love and obey God, and her commitment to love and respect me.
When Mom thought she had acted unfairly, she did not waste time making excuses for herself, even if another person had been unfair to her.
Often, she said, “Keep short sin accounts with God.” She believed that God considers love and obedience more important than pride. When tempers caused hurt, she might say the Bible verse, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.”
Mom’s practice of humility and respect is a standard that can resolve arguments in public and private affairs. For our country, the United States, to survive as a representative democracy, we need humble respect for each other.
Historically we have agreed to a vision and a government process, based on respect, which has been stated in pamphlets and documents like Thomas Paine’s First Crisis paper, The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States.
Rhett Palmer as a seventh grader memorized some of these statements. He shares them now.
From the First Crisis paper by Thomas Paine:
“These are the times that try men’s souls.
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot
Will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country;
But he that stands by it now,
Deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;
Yet we have this consolation with us,
That the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly;
It is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods;
And it would be strange indeed
If so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
From the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
My name is Rhett Palmer and I am in the seventh grade. I memorized these famous and important words in the This Week’s Story class I attend.
This is Barbara Steiner. Today, you met my mother in this story.
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