A Spiritual Exercise from Grateful Living by Dale Turner

Dale Turner has collected more than 60 of his columns for the Seattle Times in this book. In one, he writes on forgiveness.

"We often have opportunities to forgive others for little infractions. The infractions may be small, but the manner of forgiving or not forgiving is not a small thing. For instance, how do we respond when someone has dialed the phone incorrectly and reached us by mistake?

"I have had people respond to me in a gruff and angry manner when I have dialed incorrectly, and have been left feeling stupid for having made such an error. But there are others who have been kindly and understanding."

To Practice: Make forgiving someone who has dialed you incorrectly a regular spiritual practice. Or better yet, be kind to those persistent souls trying to get you to change your phone service.