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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Remorse: A forgotten virtue

I have been thinking lately about the way our world works.  There is a virtue that has become ignored, forgotten and even beyond that it is seen now as a sign of weakness and is rooted out like a weed.
I am talking about remorse.  Showing remorse or regret for choices is seen as a weakness.  Admitting that we did something wrong is seen as a lack of character.  We seem so focused on being capable, strong and most importantly right, that to acknowledge remorse is like confessing a moral defect.
This is sort of backwards.  The repentance process requires that we first recognize that we have done something wrong.  To recognize our need to repent means not just that we acknowledge that we did something that hurt others, or accepting the responsibility of correcting the hurt or damage we have done, it needs to include a genuine regret for the hurt.  It means that we recognize that we should have done something different.

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