As the door opened, the sour smell of spoiled milk drifted out of the vehicle and gripped our throats. Jeremiah pulled his shirt over his nose. Sarah’s eyes started to water.

Someone spilled milk.

“Who spilled the milk in the truck?” “Sarah spilled the milk?” “Not me.” “Yes you.” “Not me.” “Then who? Who spilled the milk in the SUV?” “Jeremiah spilled the milk…” “Not me!”

The smell was terrible, we rolled down the windows and drove to church.

Joel and Jeremiah took the truck to the car wash on a mission to kill the horrific sour milk odor.

When they returned, the guys laughed and accused me saying the milk had been spilled on the carpet under my seat. Mommy had spilled the milk. Joel kept teasing me about it. Mentioning that it had taken them two hours to clean up the mess.

I told him he shouldn’t give me so much trouble about spending two hours cleaning up my mess when we have to spend years cleaning up his mess… Somehow that wasn’t so funny.
—
Sarah sat on the bed beside me as I read the Bible. Jeremiah ran up to Sarah and whacked her on the head with a balloon. “Why Did You Do That?” Jeremiah gave his reason, “She looked at my dominoes when we were playing a game in Springfield!” That was three months ago. I lectured Jeremiah about forgiveness and returned to my reading.
—
Matthew 18:21-35

Peter asks Jesus, “How many times do I have to forgive someone who sins against me?”

Jesus tells a story about an unmerciful servant. A king wants to settle some debts. He calls his servant who owes him a ton of money. The servant begs for mercy and receives it. His master canceled the debt.

Later, the servant finds one of his coworkers who owes him a little money. He chokes the guy and demands payment. The coworker asks for mercy but receives none. The unmerciful servant has him thrown in jail.

The king hears about this. And he is ticked off. He says, “You wicked servant, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”

He put the servant in jail, ordering that he be tortured until he can pay back everything.

Then Jesus said, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”
—

Ouch. The events of the day ran through my mind. Spilled Milk. Balloons in the face. Cheating at dominoes. A lecture about forgiveness…

I shouldn’t have said that to Joel. It wasn’t funny. It was cruel and unforgiving. My attitude smelled worse than spoiled milk in an SUV.
—
Is there someone you need to forgive today?