Sandra’s head hung in shame as she headed up the walkway to the school. How many times had her daughter asked her to sign that permission slip? She had plenty of time; the field trip wasn’t for another two weeks. There was always something more pressing that required her attention. Time had flown by; why hadn’t she taken five seconds to sign that paper?

The hurt in her daughter’s tear-filled eyes was more than she could bear. I’m an awful mother, she thought, as the girl sought comfort from the woman who was responsible for her pain.

When the school secretary handed her the check-out slip, Sandra expected to be met with an expression of condemnation. The first graders had been talking about this trip for weeks and she knew her daughter must have been devastated to watch the bus leave without her.

She was surprised when she was met with a look of compassion instead.

“Mama,” she began. Sally Rutherford called everybody Mama. That was, after all, their name to those who mattered most in their lives. “Mama, you trying to do too much. You a good mama and you just need to focus on Jesus and that baby girl, and you’ll be all right.”

Sandra had never really noticed the plump, older woman before but now she saw an angel in front of her very eyes. One who’d delivered a message she’d carry in her heart for the rest of her life.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, as she took her daughter’s hand. “No school or work for either of us today. We are going on our own field trip.”

Have you ever failed as a mother? Has guilt taken hold as your child suffered for your mistakes?

Forgive yourself, focus on Jesus, and make new memories of love.

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses. Daniel 9:9