It all began one Sunday night. My parents were going for a movie and me and my brothers had to stay at home. After a few minutes of grumbling, we accepted the situation and set out to enjoy ourselves. A few days back, my cousin had given my little brother a rubber ball which could be inflated to a large size. My favourite hobby was to perch on this ball and balance myself. The night my parents left us at home, I was calmly sitting on the same ball and watching TV along with my brothers. Suddenly there was a loud crash! My little brother had clambered on to the shelf and had broken one of my crystal trophies. I took the loss in a resigned manner. With a two year old brother looking out for mischief all the time, such occurrences were not alarming in the least. I took up one of the sharp crystal pieces that had fallen on to the floor. Suddenly a thought came to me, “what would happen if I gave the rubber ball a sharp prick with the crystal piece? I did not try to reason with myself and without delay I executed the act in order to quench my curiosity. But alas! The crystal piece bored a hole right through the ball and the air started to escape. I was horrified at what I had done. But I was too late to save myself. I could imagine what my parents would say when they came to hear of it.

For the first few minutes I was miserable and penitent. But as time went on, I began justifying my actions. “After all, I had really not meant to do harm, I had done it out of sheer curiosity. I no longer felt repentant. A few hours later, my parents came home and my brother informed them about what I had done.

Both of them were really angry at me. “Hannah, how could you do it!” cried my father. “You have no value for money” That is one of the very few toys that the little baby had and now you have gone and destroyed it”. My parents scolded and scolded. But I did not feel sorry for what I had done.

There more my father scolded, the more angrier I grew. Tears came into my eyes but I blinked them back quickly. “I wouldn’t be a cry baby for worlds. I hardened my heart and closed my ears to all my father said. I felt resentment and anger growing in me every minute. After all I had not done anything very wrong. “It was just out of my curiosity. What right did father have to scold me like this?

I was relentless, sullen and uncompromising.

Finally all of us gathered in the room for the family prayer. Still I was angry, very angry especially at my father. But as we began singing songs and praising god, my heart began to soften.

After the song was over, we stretched our hand upward to the loving God in heaven and started praying,”Halllelujah”, Praise the lord” As I praised the lord, a little voice spoke inside me. “Hannah, why are you so stubborn and relentless? Why are you angry with your father? If you humble yourself a little and say sorry, all this misery will be over.

After praise and worship, it was time to read the bible. As my father read on, that little voice in me grew stronger. Slowly it said over and over again, “Hannah, why don’t you just apologize?”
The prayer was over and all the family was ready to go to sleep. But I lingered near my father’s bed room. “Should I do it or not? This was the question that persisted in my mind.

I had two choices, I could either remain the same cold Hannah and not apologize to my father and make it hard for me and my family, or I could humble myself, thus clearing the atmosphere. The choice was a hard one. But I decided to take the right one, to go and say sorry to my father. But still I lingered, It was quite hard for me to swallow my pride and apologize. I had almost decided on forgetting the incident and going to bed, when the same voice spoke to me, “think how happy Jesus will be if you humble yourself a little and apologize?”

I entered my father’s resolutely. The light was off and my father had laid down for sleep. “Father” I called timidly.

“What is it, Hannah?”

I am sorry for destroying the ball, I couldn’t help myself”. “I did it out of plain curiosity”.

“Hannah, It is not because of what you did that I am angry with you, rather it is because you were too proud to own up that you were sorry”. Any way, it’s alright and I am not angry with you any more”.

It was only then that I felt truly repentant. Again that voice was speaking to me, “Hannah, go and give your father a good-night kiss”.
To say a stiff sorry was one thing and to give my father a truly tender kiss was an entirely different thing.
Again I fought a battle inside my heart and the good soldiers won. I walked forward, bend down and kissed my father. I turned to go back, but my father’s hand detained me. He drew into the loving circle of his arms and kissed. And then all the tears that I had pushed back, came to the surface and began trickling down my cheeks. Oh God, if I hadn’t said sorry to my father, I wouldn’t have had this lovely experience.

That day I learnt a great lesson.
Every little cloud can be chased away from your horizon and every little difference can be settled if you are ready to humble yourself and apologize. That day, I realized that the most wonderful word in the dictionary is “sorry” and the most wonderful action is the kiss of true love, devotion and repentance.

I had to fight a difficult battle to make my mind to say sorry. But after the battle was won, the reward I got was a truly fatherly and loving kiss which was the greatest gift I could have received.
All of us quarrel in our lives. Even when you are reading this, you might have quarreled with your loved ones. But the main thing is to reconcile with each other. Sometimes we might have to humble ourselves considerably. We might have a hard battle to fight. But the reward is worth it. I think love is like a beautiful river with luscious green banks on its sides. When we quarrel, the river stops flowing and the land become dry. Why spoil the beauty of love, when a single word, “sorry” can set things right once again?
Even if we have a hard battle to fight, let us fight like the loyal and valiant warriors of God. Let us fight shoulder to shoulder as brotherine for one united cause, “love”. Let us bridge the gap. Let us move forward trusting in God, his and in his immeasurable love. And as we strive forward, God will send those good soldiers, our guardian angels to help us win the battle against hatred. And finally we will conquer the enemy, hatred. And with victorious hearts let’s us say those wonderful and glorious words “I am sorry”.