I Didn't Mean to do That!

(08/13/11)

Several weeks ago I was with my daughter in Wal-mart; and while I was looking at flags to put out for the fourth of July, she was looking at balloons.  Ok, let me rephrase that… she was playing with balloons.  No, I need to take that a step further… she had opened a pack of balloons and was blowing them up.  Now, should I have paid a little more attention?  Maybe… then I wouldn’t have had to buy the whole pack.  Needless to say, I walked out of the store very frustrated.  Later that afternoon, as we were running more errands, my daughter apologized to me saying, “I’m sorry, Mommy.  I didn’t mean to do that.”  Before I had a chance to think, I answered with, “Yes you did.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t have done it.”  Now, my daughter knows better than to pick up things that don’t belong to her; but being only seven years old, she is still learning to control her impulses.  As I tried to explain to her the difference between ‘meaning it’ and ‘not meaning it’, I began thinking about my own prayer life.  How often do I ask God’s forgiveness in the same way?  “God, I’m sorry for what I did… I didn’t mean to do it.”  I probably pray that prayer more than I should.  So here’s my lesson… as I sit down to pray for forgiveness, I need to examine my own heart and ask myself the question, “Did I mean to do that?”  And if I did ‘mean it’, take full responsibility and ask God to change my heart so that hopefully, I won’t do that again.

Psalm 26:2-3

Psalm 139:23-24