How to say SORRY

I'm meditating on this lesson in how to apologize for my Monday Mindfulness.  It's from a teacher who knows how to really teach children how to say, "I'm sorry."  You should read the whole article, but the illustration above contains the basics.  Do you remember being told to "tell you brother you are sorry"?  Or telling your own child to "say you're sorry"?  Nothing sincere about those apologies, was there?  This teacher shows how children — and adults — can learn what it takes to get past these incidents a better way.  Now, will I remember this formula?

I’m sorry for...
This is wrong because...
In the future, I will...
Will you forgive me?

I was especially impressed that this teacher had children apologizing for not paying attention in class because it was wasting the time of all the other students as well as the teacher.  The student had to:

1.  acknowledge what went wrong,
2.  point out who was affected,
3.  say how she or he would change,
4.  ask forgiveness.

And it worked!  This is a great lesson in apologizing.