Repeat offenders

In CBS, we're currently studying Judges, where the Israelites keep falling into the same cycle of sin, punishment, repentance, and salvation over and over.  Noah was exasperated and said, "What's wrong with these fools?!  Don't they ever learn?"  I admit I had the same thought myself until God brought to my attention the fact that I'm doing the same exact thing.  I keep on committing the same sins, much as I want to stop. 

In Sarah's book, her last question said, "Make a list of the sins you commit in your life over and over."  On the blank lines that followed, Sarah wrote, "They worshipped idols, they broke the ark of the covenant (??), they stole..."  I stopped her there and clarified that she was supposed to write a list of her own sins, not those of the Israelites.  So then she wrote, "We lie, we disobey, we..." I stopped her again and asked, "Who's we?"  She said, "You know.  People." I explained again that she's supposed to be making a list of her own personal sins.  She tapped her pencil, she looked around, she seemed to be deep in thought.  Finally she wrote, "I threw the cat in the pool."  She proceeded to close up her book, satisfied. Done.

I said, "That was definitely a sin, but you're supposed to make a LIST of the sins that you keep doing over and over.  You only threw the cat in the pool once..." Then a terrible thought came to me.  "You did only throw the cat in the pool once, didn't you?"  She rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, Mom. It only took one time to find out he really could swim." 

I was sitting there thinking I'd need a separate sheet of paper (or even a whole notebook) if I was to make a list of her repeated sins.  I was mentally ticking them off, while she was apparently still trying to think of a single one.  Finally she said, "Well, I do know what I'm good at.  I'm good at confessing my sins."  As I thought about it, I realized that her perspective is actually much healthier than mine.  God sees her as perfectly sinless, because Jesus has already paid for all her sins, and mine too.  But I'm the one focusing on her sin, my sin, everyone else's sin, while she realizes that the slate is truly wiped clean. Psalm 103:12 says,

"As far as east is from west— that's how far God has removed our sin from us."