Why is it SO hard to forgive the little stuff?

Do you ever find it almost EASIER to forgive “big stuff” than to forgive little, annoying stuff that really doesn’t matter anyway?

Case in point … our neighbor is a nice little elderly widow whom we like a lot. She has a professional lawn care company come in once a week or so to mow her lawn and keep her bushes all trimmed.

One day, months (years?) ago, one of the workers rang our doorbell and said, “You may want to tell your husband that one of your sprinkler heads is broken by the side of the house.” I said, “Thank you!” and told Fred about it later that night.

Of course, Fred knew instantly what had REALLY happened … the sprinkler head is WAY back on the side of our house that NO ONE ever goes even CLOSE to … EXCEPT for this lawn care company on their big ol’ riding lawnmower that has to SWING ONTO OUR PROPERTY in order to reach our neighbor’s grass.

So … how did the sprinkler head get broken? THIS GUY RAN OVER IT. (Ok, I can’t be 100% sure … but seriously, we’re talking about 99.999999999999999999999999999% sure.)

So why didn’t he just TELL ME THE TRUTH? … “Uh, sorry m’am. I accidentally broke off one of your sprinkler heads. My fault. My bad. Really sorry about that. Of course I’m happy to pay to have it fixed since I was on YOUR property without permission.”

We wouldn’t have cared. AT ALL. Accidents happen. It costs like $4 and 20 minutes of Fred’s time to replace one. No biggie.

But boy! It bugs me EVERY SINGLE TIME that I see them out there doing her lawn now.

Isn’t this the STUPIDEST thing to be even a little annoyed by? More or less upset about? I’m embarrassed and I’m thinking seriously about not even posting this.

Except that it might help to illustrate the depravity of my heart and my total need for Christ’s forgiveness and redemption. Obviously, left ot my own devices, I would be a selfish, ungracious, unkind, unloving JERK. My only hope is in Christ.

Please, Lord, please help me to forgive not only the “big sins” but also these tiny little petty offenses and inconveniences too.

And please forgive me for being such a selfish girl.
Amen!