John Wesley's mother, Susanna, was an extraordinary woman! As a young man, Wesley (the founder of the Methodist Church), once asked his mother for a definition of sin. She replied in a letter:
"Take this rule: whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself."
-- Susanna Wesley (Letter, June 8, 1725)