Definition: having regret of offense or sin and willingness to atone; contrite
Comment: If you did something you know was wrong, you will eventually see it for what it was, and want to reverse the injury. To feel a need to take positive action is a first step. Yet you may not be able to remove the harm done to a specific person. What you can do is change who you are. Then you will act differently to all.
Quotes:
• Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) German Lutheran theologian
• When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. — Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Scottish-Canadian inventor
Observation: The penitent brigand … saw a really great man, a true hero. Here was a hero who fired his zeal and inspired his highest ideas of moral self-respect and quickened all his ideals of courage, manhood, and bravery. In beholding Jesus, there sprang up in his heart an overwhelming sense of love, loyalty, and genuine greatness. (187:4.5) — The Urantia Book {1955}