A Loving Parent

Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. 

He will not always chide, nor does he keep his wrath forever. 

Psalm 103:8-9 

There’s a core Jewish teaching: Never go to bed angry. It’s also standard advice to married couples. In Psalm 103, God’s posture is that of a loving parent: “slow to anger, and abounding in kindness,” no matter how much we disappoint. Many of us may never have experienced parental love like that. Yet it still feels right, doesn’t it? We know this is how parents should act. With my family, I treat never going to bed angry as nonnegotiable. 

It’s indescribably comforting to know this psalm. We might all use this line from Reb Zalman’s translation of the Jewish Bedtime Shema prayer: 

I hereby forgive whoever has hurt me, and whoever has done me any wrong, whether it was deliberately or by accident, whether it was done by word or by deed. 

– Phil Fox Rose 

Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28 • Psalm 103:6-13 • Matthew 13:36-43 

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