Sorry On My Lips, But In My Heart?

Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips. Proverbs 22:17-18

Yesterday's golf format was a Scotch twosome. You and your partner each hit drives, then you pick the best one to play and alternate shots until you have putted out. My partner and I weren't having one of our best performances on the course. We had one spectacular hole, but that was about it. The two fun ladies with whom we played were in the same boat. All of us hit some beautiful shots, plus some very poor ones. Nothing is worse than messing up your partner's great shot with a really stinky follow up. I did it more than once. If the four of us said "I'm sorry" once, we said it fifty times. Finally, we all agreed to quit saying it. We knew we were sorry, and we were sure equal in the times we needed to pass the apology back and forth.
Three things came to mind later as I was thinking about the day.
One, how routine it became to say that phrase in the short time we played. How easy it was to say... ready on our lips. We really felt badly, wanted our partner to know it, and deep down were embarrassed and wanted to be forgiven.
Two, the apologies were for such a little thing in the big picture of our lives. I am really good at saying I am sorry over these little inconsequential golf shots. Good grief it wasn't for big bucks like the pros play for! Why is it so easy to say "I'm sorry" over the little things, not the big ones, if it is right there on our lips? Maybe I don't have the real ideal of forgiveness far enough down in my heart to be able to quickly apologise for my big mistakes.
Three, when you start really paying attention to a "saying of the wise" it is amazing how often it crops up in your life. Chances to apply it. We have been pondering forgiveness here for a while. Now I see it in little happenstances, like on the golf course, and in telephone calls from an old school chum who called this week to apologise for an occurrence that happened years ago.
The deeper in my heart I put the will of God, the more I let God's will work on me, the quicker it travels from my heart to my lips. How about you?