Canon Stephen Bradberry's thought of the week

He looked in the bathroom mirror and treated his cuts and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d been able to hide this from his wife.

When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife.

‘You were drunk last night, weren’t you?’

‘No, dear,’ he replied innocently.

‘Well, if you weren’t, then who put all the plasters on the bathroom mirror?’

Despite our many failed attempts, we continue to hide things from those around us.

Remember when you were small and your parents were out and in the process of messing about the lamp in the living room got knocked over and a piece broke off.

You stuck it back together again hoping that no one would ever notice and then disappear to your room.

But mum comes home and it doesn’t take her long to notice.

She comes to your room and says, ‘Did you break my lamp?

And you say, as innocently as possible, ‘What lamp?

The hardest thing in the world is to admit your mistakes.

The one thing that God desires most when it comes to our wrongdoing is honesty and openness.

We can’t ask God for forgiveness unless we first confess that we have failed.

‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’

The wonderful thing about our faith is that we can have the absolute assurance that as we come to God in penitence and faith we are forgiven and restored.

God is faithful and just and in him we can put our trust.

Canon Stephen Bradberry