First Time Offense

Dear Lord,
we have heard other people say, after a life of sin and error, that they wish they had only learned their lesson early on in life. They wish something had happened to make them stop sooner. We are grateful that You intervened early in our marriage to save us a lifetime of regrets. Please, Lord, do not make the punishment so severe for a first time offense. The sin is great, and the punishment we know is great too, but we ask You to look into our hearts and see that with every fiber in our beings we will prevent this from happening again. The punishment doesn't need to be greater for us to be committed to change. Heavenly Father, please use this as a warning should it happen again: don't give us the maximum punishment for this sin when it has only happened once.

We promise, Lord, that regardless of what you decide, we will not change our committment to preventing this or helping others. Our love and devotion to You is not dependent on You giving us what we want. We know that You are never outdone in generosity. Trusting in that, we give you all that we have, and all that we are. We know You'll take care of us.
Amen.