A Lesson In Forgiveness…The Day I Ran Over Nora’s Cat

I ran over Nora’s cat on Friday.

Do you ever wish you had a reset button?  A chance for a do over? I definitely would have liked to have one on Friday!

Out of all the kids, it had to be Nora’s cat.  My little “crazy cat lady” and her sidekick, Candy were just about inseparable.  As far as a kid and her pet goes, these two had a one of a kind relationship.  To say that this cat was her best friend isn’t far from the truth.

When Nora was 3 she taught Candy to ride in her shopping cart without jumping out.  When we moved, Candy would crawl up on Nora’s window ledge and use her paw to knock on her window.

I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I got back to the house to find my husband with a shovel down by our fence line performing a cat funeral and a houseful of hysterical children.

I’m still not exactly sure how it happened because when I backed out of the driveway my windows were rolled down.  My back up camera never beeped, I never heard a meow…nothing.  I was doing a quick run to check our cows and came home to complete despair.

As I held my sobbing 8-year-old, I kept telling her how sorry I was, how much I loved her, and any other thing I could think of to soothe her.  This was the worst parent guilt I have ever felt multiplied by a million.

My teary eyed girl looked up at me, choked through her sobs and said, “Mom, I know you would never do it on purpose!  I was an accident.  I forgive you!  Besides, now Candy will always be with us at our new house.”

As she nuzzled up in my cuddles and cried some more it was such a lesson in forgiveness.  I was prepared for her to scream and cry and ask how I could do such a thing (and I really wouldn’t have blamed her for doing it).  Instead she displayed Christ-like behavior…grieving but extending true forgiveness, grace, and love.

Which of course made me cry, too.  As much as we will miss Candy (and it’s already been an awful lot), I am so proud of my daughter for her kind heart.  Nora made her a cross for her grave and we bought some flower seeds to make it pretty.

Being a parent isn’t easy. Being a kid isn’t easy, either. With a lot of love and forgiveness, we all live more full lives.

Do you need to forgive someone? How could things change if you extended the love and grace that Nora gave me?