A little girl had been naughty, so she was sent to her room for a quiet time. Afterward, all smiles, she returned to her family, saying, “I prayed to God.”

“That’s good,” said her mother. “Did you pray that God would help you be a good girl?”

“No,” she replied. “I prayed that God would help you put up with me.”

Many of us are like that little girl. We do wrong, but rather than repenting of our sins, we pray that God will put up with us. And why not? It’s our nature to sin; it’s God’s nature to forgive. Some of us have that attitude.

A prominent book a few years back asked the question: whatever became of sin? It’s a good question. We don’t really sin nowadays. Instead, mistakes were made, as our politicians remind us. And yet, when we look at some of the teachings of Jesus, we get an e…