We All Need Forgiveness Read online

  Forgive each other because the Lord forgave you.

  Colossians 3:13

  We All Need Forgiveness

  © 2014 by Mercer Mayer

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Tommy Nelson. Tommy Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson.

  Little Critter, Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter and Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter and Logo are trademarks of Orchard House Licensing Company. All rights reserved.

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  Scripture quotations are taken from The International Children’s Bible®. © 1986, 1988, 1999 by Thomas Nelson All rights reserved.

  ISBN 978-0-7180-1930-3 (eBook)

  Library of Congress control number is on file.

  ISBN 978-1-4003-2250-3

  Printed in China

  14 15 16 17 18 LEO 6 5 4 3 2 1

  www.littlecritter.com

  LITTLE CRITTER, MERCER MAYER'S LITTLE CRITTER, and

  MERCER MAYER'S LITTLE CRITTER and Logo are registered trademarks

  of Orchard House Licensing Company. All rights reserved.

  Contents

  Copyright Page

  Begin Reading

  Today Mom made a pineapple upside-down cake.

  I was only going to take a teensy taste when I knocked the cake onto the floor. Oops!

  “Sorry, Mom,” I said.

  “That is the most upside-down pineapple upside-down cake I’ve ever made!” said Mom. “It’s okay, Little Critter. Accidents happen sometimes.”

  Dad asked me to get a wrench from the garage.

  I found one, but the oil can was in the way, and the oil spilled onto the floor. I hoped Dad would forgive me for spilling his oil.

  I went out to the sandbox to play, but my beautiful castle was almost all washed away.

  “I’m sorry, Little Critter!” said Little Sister. “I was just watering the garden. It was an accident.”

  “Yeah right,” I said.

  After that I wanted to color, so I lined up all my crayons in a row. Gray Kitty pounced on them and made a mess.

  “Bad cat!” I said. “I’m going outside.”

  I stormed out the front door.

  I went for a ride on my bike, but Timothy rode into me. My bike tipped over and the handlebars got bent.

  “Sorry, Little Critter,” said Timothy.

  But I was too mad to say it was okay.

  I put on my mask to go scuba diving. All I needed was my snorkel, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

  Then Dog jumped into the tub. He had the snorkel in his mouth and it was all chewed up.

  “Bad dog,” I said.

  At the bus stop, Gabby was trying out my new yo-yo and she got the string all tangled.

  “I didn’t mean to, Little Critter,” she said.

  “I’m never letting you play with my toys again, Gabby,” I said.

  At lunch I was about to eat my yummy chocolate chip cookie when Henrietta bumped into the table and it fell onto the floor. It broke into a million pieces.

  “Sorry, Little Critter,” said Henrietta.

  But “sorry” didn’t help one bit because my cookie wasn’t good anymore.

  Then at the dress rehearsal for our play, I waved my arms a little too hard and knocked over the candy house. Gabby and Gator tripped over it, and so did Henrietta. The candy decorations went all over the place, and the whole set came crashing down. It was a mess.

  Miss Kitty said we had to stop the play and clean up. Now everyone was mad at me because it took us a long time to clean up and we didn’t have time for the fun surprise Miss Kitty had planned. I said I was sorry, but everyone was still mad.

  When I got home, I told Mom all about the play and how my friends were mad at me.

  “Don’t worry,” said Mom. “They will forgive you. Everyone needs to forgive one another, just as God forgives each and every one of us. And when we forgive someone who’s done something wrong, it makes us feel better too. Try it! You’ll see.”

  I went out to my tree house to think. Mom was right. I didn’t always forgive everyone right away—and it made me feel awful.

  Just then I heard Gabby yelling, so I peeked outside. My friends were in her backyard.

  “We need someone else if we want to play football,” said Tiger.

  Then I heard someone say my name. After that there was a lot of mumbling. It sounded like mad mumbling. I figured they were still mad and they weren’t going to forgive me.

  I heard Gabby call my name. I peeked out again. All my friends were in my yard and Little Sister was pointing right at the tree house. All my friends asked me to play. They had forgiven me—and now we were all going to have fun!

  We played a great game of football and and nobody got mad at anybody.

  We all need forgiveness, just like Mom said. It’s the only way everyone can be happy!

 

 

  Mercer Mayer, We All Need Forgiveness

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