Deleted Sin

"Give me my red sweater, you jerk!" shouted Brynn as she chased her twin sister down the stairs. "You're always taking my things!""This isn't yours, dummy. It's mine," replied Savannah. "Yours is in the wash!" She ran around the kitchen table, holding the sweater tightly. Their brother Reese grinned at them. "Want to hear what you sound like?" He pushed a button on his phone, and a moment later the twins heard their own voices yelling at each other. "Isn't technology great?" said Reese. "Wait till Mom hears this." "Oh, come on, Reese! Don't play that for Mom," said Brynn.But it was too late. Their mom came to see what all the commotion was about, and Reese pressed play."Mom! Make Reese delete that," Savannah pleaded."You don't like to hear it, do you?" said Mom. "Well, neither do we.""Tell you what," said Reese. "If you'll say nice things to each other for the next few minutes, I'll delete it. So, come on! Who will be the first to say something nice?" The girls scowled, but they did as their brother told them. Soon they were all laughing as the twins tried to outdo each other in saying nice things, complimenting everything from their nail polish to their piano playing."Okay, okay," said Reese. "You kept your side of the bargain. I'll delete it." "You know, girls," said Mom, "Reese deleted your mean, angry words from his phone, but don't forget that God already heard them. He hears every word we say--He even knows our thoughts." "Yeah!" said Reese. "And you can't erase that, can you?" "Actually, the Bible says that when God forgives us for the wrong things we've done, it's like our sins have been deleted," said Mom. "Jesus took the punishment for our sins so that they could be erased. Because of Jesus, we can be honest with God about the wrong things we've done. He already knows about them and has already forgiven us." Mom looked at the girls. "And we can tell those we've wronged that we're sorry too and trust God to help us treat others with love and kindness." Both girls turned toward each other. "I'm sorry," they said. A smile crept across Brynn's face. "Maybe Reese should record this instead." "Way ahead of you!" Reese exclaimed, holding up his phone.–Beverly Kenniston