But It's Really Not Ok

She looks at the puddle on the floor with a guilty expression.  I ask her, already knowing the answer.  She confirms that she did, in fact, use the potty on the bathroom rug.  Again. 

But then she looks at me, nods her head as if trying to convince, and says, "But it's ok."

This same scenario repeats in various facets--she sins, I scold, and she nods, "But it's ok."  I want to tell her it is NOT ok.  That she absolutely MUST make it to the potty next time.  But I pause because I don't want her to question my forgiveness of her.

I have realized that what she must learn is that her sins are not ok.  But that she is forgiven for them.  Only when the ugliness of her mistakes are recognized can she see the beauty of unconditional forgiveness.  When the sins are big, the grace is big.  If the puddle is dismissed as "ok" without a second thought, her action is not forgiven, but excused.  Sanctioned.  If the puddle is seen as yucky and unacceptable, the forgiving hug is magnified. 

Like my two year old, I am inclined to brush my sins aside, viewing them as not all that bad, and believing that "it's ok."  The truth, of course, is that they are not ok either.  They are an affront to God as is her resistance to my instruction.  When I recognize my sins as they truly are, not dismissing them, but examining the motivations and unbelief behind them, then can I see the beauty of God's grace toward me.  Only then is His forgiveness magnified.

When I sin, like when she sins, it is not "ok."