\u201cThe Princess and the Pea\u201d is one of my favorite children\u2019s stories. Do you remember the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A prince wants to\nmarry a princess\u2014but she must be a real<\/em>\nprincess. After traveling the world without finding a real princess, he returns\nto his palace home. One stormy night a stranger knocks on the door. The king\nopens it to find a young girl dripping wet. He invites her to stay for the\nnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The girl claims to be a real princess. The\nqueen needs proof and devises a test, placing a small pea under the mattress on\nthe bed where the princess will sleep. Then she piles twenty more mattresses on\ntop, adding twenty feather mattresses also.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the morning when\nthe queen asks how she slept, the princess says she couldn\u2019t sleep because of\nsomething hard in her bed, making her so uncomfortable and leaving bruises.\nOnly a real<\/em> princess would have felt\nthat tiny pea!<\/p>\n\n\n\n A royal wedding\njoins the prince and his real<\/em>\nprincess, and they live happily ever after.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n That story is a good\nillustration of Psalm 5:4. \u201cI know you get no pleasure\nfrom wickedness and cannot tolerate the slightest sin\u201d (The Living Bible 1971).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strong words. I wonder if we take them\nseriously. What if we really believed them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just wondering\u2026what, in God\u2019s eyes, would be among the slightest sins? Presenting a proud look? Harboring an ugly thought? Nursing a grudge? Speaking hurtful words? These are not major<\/em> sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just wondering\u2026what, in God\u2019s eyes, would be among the slightest sins? Presenting a proud look? Harboring an ugly thought? Nursing a grudge? Speaking hurtful words? These are not major sins. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n Major sins would include awful stuff\u2014like armed robbery or murder. Most of us are incapable of such appalling deeds. But the slightest sins flow through daily life pretty much unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have a vivid memory of the day God\nfocused my attention on that category\u2014slightest sins. I\u2019d arrived at church\nlate and frazzled by the Sunday morning routine, helping two young children get\nready. Managing to calm my spirit, I began teaching the lesson to our\ncouples’ Sunday school class by reading aloud the focus verse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my\nheart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer”\n(Psalm 19:14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although I’d read the verse many\ntimes, the meaning suddenly filled me with awe. Looking at the class in\nastonishment, I said, “What an extraordinary way to live!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n That verse initiated life change\u2014slowly,\nas I learned to apply the teaching to my daily walk, desiring that the words of\nmy mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in God\u2019s sight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started paying attention to the slightest sins<\/em> in my life, knowing I\ncould never in this flesh come close to God\u2019s standard of perfection\u2026but very\nmuch wanting to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My ears became sensitive to comments by good\npeople, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think God wants\u2026\u201d to justify why they\u2019d made a choice\nto do something he had clearly forbidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I noticed how quick we are to assure our\nscarred friends (and ourselves) that God loves and forgives the major as well\nas the slightest sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes! He absolutely does! But because of his\ngreat love for us, he gave us a guidebook (the Bible) and his indwelling presence\n(the Holy Spirit) to help us make good decisions and live without regret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When someone says, \u201cI don\u2019t think God\nmeant\u2026\u201d we know we\u2019re getting opinion, not fact. If we truly want fact, we can\nfind it in God\u2019s Word. He said what he meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Has God become soft on sin? No! He hates sin. Sin nailed his Son to the cross! Of course he is concerned about the slightest sin because a little disobedience can cause a large disruption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Has God become soft on sin? No! He hates sin. Sin nailed his Son to the cross! Of course he is concerned about the slightest sin because a little disobedience can cause a large disruption. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n So how can we live clean and pure in an evil day? We can begin with two firm decisions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will set no wicked\nthing before mine eyes\u2026\u201d (Psalm 101:3a).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2026I am purposed that\nmy mouth shall not transgress\u201d (Psalm 17:3b).<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we can make Psalm 19:14 a daily prayer,\nrelying on the power of the indwelling Spirit to make it so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my\nheart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Would you tell me about a time when God\nfocused your attention on an area that needed work and how he brought change?\nAnd please share this article with your friends!<\/p>\n\n\n\n * My Giant Story Book (Westport Corp., New York, NY, 1972)<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Scriptures from KJV unless noted)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9 Dianne Barker 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe Princess and the Pea\u201d is one of my favorite children\u2019s stories. Do you remember the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale? A prince wants to marry a princess\u2014but she must be a real princess. After traveling the world without finding a real princess, he returns to his palace home. One stormy night a stranger knocks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,482,438,483,136,481,480],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-dianne-barker","tag-god-cannot-tolerate-the-slightest-sin","tag-living-the-maximum-life","tag-major-sins","tag-psalm-1914","tag-psalm-54","tag-the-princess-and-the-pea"],"yoast_head":"\n