We all know the main sins and commandments but are there small little everyday sins we might not really think about?
Things we wouldn’t even think to confess.
What sins do we commit every day without realizing?
A cashier hands me too much change and I don’t say anything. In traffic I treat other drivers like things in my way and tell myself I’m in a hurry.
Small dishonesties and the coldness I write off as a bad mood. None of it feels like sin, nobody got hurt in any obvious way and everyone around me does the same stuff.
The ones I overlook are the small ones. Sins of the heart and tongue. Grumbling about my circumstances, judging a stranger in the checkout line, stretching a story, ignoring a need I could easily meet.
Ingratitude too. I rarely think to confess the hours I spend fretting over what I lack while saying nothing to God about what I have.
A few minutes at the end of the day asking where I was impatient or self-centered has turned up more than I expected.
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The everyday ones are what I miss most. Staring at my phone while someone’s talking to me… Telling someone I’ll pray for them and then forgetting.
Then there are the days I run on my own steam, making plans and trusting my own judgment without once asking what God wants.
What helps me is a short review of the day before bed. It brings this stuff to mind and gives me something specific to confess instead of a vague ‘sorry for whatever I did today.’
I’d always thought of ingratitude as worrying. Fretting over what I lack while saying nothing about what I have is a way of telling God He hasn’t been good enough.
I tried your end-of-day review last night. The impatience and self-centered stuff came up fast… Ingratitude looks like responsible planning.
So how do you tell honest concern about a real need from the fretting you’ve started confessing?
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Forgetting that I promised to pray for someone, yeah, I’ve done that more than I’d like to admit… So now I pray right then when they ask, even if it’s only a sentence.
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It’s a common assumption that sin needs an obvious victim, but the cashier’s drawer coming up short at closing is a pretty real one.
Fretting over what we lack while never thanking God for what we have describes most of my prayers lately.