The SORRY Steps

In one of the courses that I just recently finished, we were asked to make up a lesson plan regarding any subject we wanted to teach about. It was a great opportunity to share lesson plans with our fellow future teacher classmates, as well as to view various teaching styles. We enjoyed learning from one another.

After my experience working with kids in a before- and after-school program, I knew that one of the biggest hurdles with kids is when it comes to resolving arguments. So, naturally, I decided to teach a lesson on How to Apologize. It would fall under the Life Skills category in the state standards, so thankfully I was able to tie it in with the benchmarks.

There are so few children (and, unfortunately, adults too) who know how to properly apologize. There are important steps that one must take in order to genuinely ask for forgiveness. Hopefully I can use this with my students one day.

I was so excited about this lesson, because I created an acrostic poem as an easy-to-remember way to properly apologize. Here it is:

Sincerity ... Are you really sorry? Be sincere.

Offense ... Why are you sorry? Say what you did wrong (the offense).

Responsibility ... Why did you do it? Explain the problem and take responsibility for it.

Rectify ... Tell them what you will do differently next time (rectify means to change).

Yield ... Ask them if they will forgive you (yield means give them the power).

It is very important to remember that we cannot make other people do things. We can only control our own behaviors. The other person can choose to forgive or not to forgive. That is up to them.

I have used this in my marriage and it works WONDERS. It is a basic guideline that covers all the bases when resolving problems. By humbling myself, I am able to give Jen the power to forgive me or not. Thankfully, whenever I screw up and hurt her, she never fails to forgive me after I apologize whole-heartedly. She's a wonderful wife, knowing that Jesus first forgave her.

Riedlblog label: Marriage, Teaching