NOVEMBER 19, Psalm 38:18

“Mary, please come out and play with me,” pleaded little Amy. Mary frowned. She did not want to play with her little sister. “I can’t,” she said. “I have to do my homework now.”

As Amy walked away sadly, the phone rang. “I’ll get it, Mom,” called Mary. She picked up the phone. “Oh, hi, Audrey,” she said. “What? No, I don’t have anything else to do, and making cookies sounds like fun. I’ll ask Mom if I can come over, and I’ll call you back.”

As Mary turned from the phone, she saw her mother standing in the doorway, shaking her head. “Why did you tell Audrey you had nothing to do after telling Amy you had to do your homework?” asked Mom.

Mary looked uncomfortable. “Well, I… I don’t feel like playing Amy’s games,” she said. “They’re for little kids. But I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I needed an excuse.” Mom frowned. “That wasn’t an excuse, Mary,” she said. “It was a lie. If you don’t want to play with Amy, simply say so. Don’t lie about it and say you can’t.”

“It was just a little lie,” protested Mary. “Besides, I do have homeworkbut it can wait a while.”

Mom sighed. “Girl,” she said, “in God’s sight, sins are not big or little. He says if we break His law in just one point, we’re guilty of breaking it all. We should hate sins, not make excuses for them.” After a moment, Mom added, “We’ve told you about a scary experience when you were a baby and swallowed an open safety pin, remember? It got stuck in your throat.” Mary nodded. She had heard the story often.

“When the doctor successfully retrieved the pin, he asked me if I wanted it for a souvenir,” said Mom. “It made me shudder. I certainly didn’t want it! It didn’t matter that it was just a ‘little’ pin, I figured it could have killed you, and I never wanted to see it again! And, honey, our sins did bring Jesus to the cross! Do you think we should want to hold on to any of them, big or small?”

Mary slowly shook her head. “I never thought about it like that,” she said. “I’ll apologise to Amy and play with her a little while before I go over to Audrey’s.”

Thought: Do you excuse some of your sins, calling them “little” or “not very bad”?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for the reminder that no sin can be called “little” or “not very bad”. Help me to be repentant and seek Your forgiveness whenever I fall into sin. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.