People make mistakes all of the time, in which it is understood that we can’t do much individually about those mistakes made by others against us; we can, though, do something constructive about those mistakes and misdeeds that we have done to the other. To wit, the easiest thing for most people to do when they have wronged the other is to simply apologize to them, but because words are just words, and do not in of themselves represent action, it has to be admitted that to merely be sorry about this or that, and then sulk away, thereby giving the appearance of feeling remorse, is the type of apology which doesn’t do much of anything to make good on what needs to be made good on.
While there are those misdeeds that are so terrible that there actually isn’t a corresponding action that can make up for what has occurred, we still need to do our level best to correct what we can, by changing our behavior for the better and thereby endeavoring to do what we can do to help to make things better. Fortunately, most of the time, though, the type of error that we have made, which necessitates an apology, typically permits us to do something of use for those we have offended, to thus demonstrate our sincerity by making amends for what we have done wrong.
Indeed, it has to be admitted that just about everyone has known a so-called friend who messes up again and again, often in the same way, of which they eventually apologize to us but subsequently do little or nothing to correct their behavior. That pretty much signifies that their apology means nothing, because when nothing is ever corrected, or even reasonably attempted to be corrected, there isn’t even much point in making that verbal apology in the first place, because nothing of substance comes forth from it.
To do wrong, is part of the human experience, and those then that acknowledge their wrong and then take steps to make amends are the very same that recognize that we need to take responsibility for what we say and do, or else, we are just people that mouth excuses, without ever taking the time to examine our own self, so as to figure out where we have gone wrong, and what we can subsequently do to reduce such to thereby become a better person for it.
In sum, there are plenty of lessons to be learned in our lives, of which, those that learn those lessons best are the ones that make good on their past mistakes and thereby create the framework not to stumble in the future and are true to it; whereas those that are insincere, are reduced to making weak excuses for their misdeeds, of which, probably some of those excuses have legitimacy to them, yet that just isn’t going to be good enough, because at the end of day, words without constructive actions behind them, have little merit and never will.