There is a story I heard about a parent teaching there child after they had made a mistake of telling a lie to cover up something done wrong.  So the parent had the child go out to the fence and gave them a bunch of nails and told the child to hammer all the nails into the fence.  When the child was done the parent had the child take out all the nails.  After it was finished there was  barely a fence the child thought. The child asked why did you have me do that?  The parent said, ” Once someone makes the same mistake over and over again or continues to lie and the person finds out there is always something to remind them.”  The child looked at the fence it was basically gone.  The child started to realize how serious his mistake was.  The parent continued to say, ” It is more important not to lie, betray, or make mistakes otherwise the relationship accumulates bad memories and there is no more fence or defense of why that relationship is valuable or necessary, in other words no defense of keeping that relationship together and strong.”

Even I know I have made mistakes and apologize for them all the time. I realize that some of my relationships have weakened because of it. However, I have worked at remembering the things that I need to put into relationships to build them closer and strengthen a few others. In this new year when forgiveness is important there may not be many fences to mend or if there are starting now, I shall. 

Happy New Year from one like me who is making new habits to live by.
-Jennie Nawrocki