Ronald Reagan on Forgiveness

On Meet the Press on May 20, 2007, they were discussing the recently published Reagan Diaries. Apparently, only four presidents kept a regular journal during their time in the White House and Reagan was one of them. The diary was pretty raw and honest from what I gathered during the show. Like any father, he apparently struggled with his children.

This quotation from the diary that they shared on the show was particularly meaningful to me. Reagan was writing about March 30, 1981, the day he was shot. (I've preserved the punctuation as it was presented on the television screen during the program, which I assume is from the diary.)

Left the hotel at the usual side entrance and headed for the car -- suddenly there was a burst of gun fire from the left. S. S. Agent pushed me onto the floor of the car & jumped on top. ...

Then I began coughing up blood which made both of us think -- yes I had broken a rib & it had punctured a lung. He switched orders from W. H. to Geo. Wash. U. Hosp.

By the time we arrived I was having great trouble getting enough air. ... I walked into the emergency room and was hoisted onto a cart. ... It was then we learned I'd been shot & had a bullet in my lung.

Getting shot hurts. Still my fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breathe it seemed I was getting less & less air. I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayed. But I realized I couldn't ask for Gods help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who had shot me. Isn't that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all Gods children & therefore equally beloved by him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold. ...

The days of therapy, transfusion, intravenous etc. have gone by -- now it is Sat. April 11 and this morning I left the hospital. ...

Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can.