Mr. Speaker, this morning the keynote speaker at the annual parliamentary prayer breakfast gave us a dramatic definition of forgiveness. Pastor Dale Lang and his wife Diane said goodbye to their son Jason a year ago when he was shot in the tragic high school shooting in Taber.
This morning Pastor Lang reminded us that we live in a self-centred, selfish, impatient society. We have denigrated and diminished the value of being a human and the value of human life and have glorified violence.
Thousands carry pain and rejection, loneliness and hurt, but he also told us that we can be healed if we practise forgiveness. He shared his deep gut wrenching pain at the death of his son, but he also shared how God gave them the strength and grace to forgive the troubled young man who caused that death.
God bless Dale and Diane as they bring this powerful gift of forgiveness to our nation's young people and to all of us. Perhaps we should all pray the words of the song “let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me”.