I headed out to the Easter Vigil, super-angry at one of my kids. It was a deep resentment, the kind that\u2019s hard to shake.<\/p>\n
Fortunately the service was extremely long, and as I sat in the dark with my lighted candle I had ample time for reflection. Surely, I thought, I had a hard heart toward my child.<\/p>\n
That was a problem. How could I possibly approach Christ\u2014who had just died on Calvary for my sake\u2014with anger in my heart? That would be like saying, \u201cThanks for the suffering, Jesus, but I\u2019m not up to forgiving even one person one thing!\u201d <\/p>\n
Lord, show me how to rise from this anger, reborn,<\/em> I prayed. The request seemed about as difficult to fulfill as asking him to rise from the tomb. Create in me a clean heart, let me worship you in the beauty of truth. I\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t know how to do this myself.<\/em><\/p>\n Slowly, my heart softened. Like most things, it wasn\u2019t because I did anything right or well. It wasn\u2019t that I was a good Christian, or because I found the words that finally worked. It was because he did the hard part for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I headed out to the Easter Vigil, super-angry at one of my kids. It was a deep resentment, the kind that\u2019s hard to shake. Fortunately the service was extremely long, and as I sat in the dark with my lighted candle I had ample time for reflection. Surely, I thought, I had a hard heart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":26825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[292,14,72],"ppma_author":[495],"class_list":["post-16263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devotions-for-inspiration","tag-daily-guideposts-devotions","tag-spiritual-growth","tag-stories-of-faith"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n