sin

My vocabulary has changed quite a lot since I stopped going to church. Here's a short list of words and phrases I don't use anymore. (I posted the list on FLAK many moons ago, and others added many more phrases.)

the Lord
the Brethren
scripture
righteous(ness)
sin
repentance
Nephite, Lamanite
prophesy, prophet, seer
humility
mission field
spirit prison
spirit heaven
pre-mortal existence
immorality
temple work
mutual night

Last night at dinner, as I contemplated the fact that I'd just had a glass of wine and was then drinking some after-dinner tea, I started singing out loud,

"How many sins have I committed today? How many sins have I committed today? Let us count them!" I got the tune from my son's preschool song, "How many friends are here today? Let us count them!"

My son, listening to my strange little song, asked what "sin" means. After a hearty smile over the fact that he doesn't know what a sin is, I started to explain.

"Well, some people, like Grandma and Grandpa, call things that they think are wrong, sin. Like they think drinking wine is bad, so they call that a sin. And drinking tea, too. They would call that a sin. But I don't think that stuff is bad. And I don't call it sin, anyway."

"What do you call it?" he asked.

"For example, if I hurt somebody, then I say, 'I hurt somebody'. I don't call it sin."

The little wheels in his head started to turn, trying to figure out exactly what sin meant.

"So," he said, "if I eat peanuts, that's a sin!"

I laughed and said, "No, not like that. You're allergic to peanuts. If you eat them, you'll get a allergic reaction, but that's not a sin."

"Oh."

Then I finished drinking my sinful, sinful tea.