When my children were small, they were messy. They made some terrible messes.
On a particularly trying day it seemed like all they did was make messes and all I did was clean up after them. It was about 4:00 in the afternoon, the bewitching hour to all mothers of pre-schoolers; the time when you are trying to fix dinner and your precious darlings are getting hungry and cranky.
I gave the kids some juice and a healthy snack to hold them over as I began to cook supper. While putting the juice back in the refrigerator, I dropped the container and juice got everywhere, on the floor, the cabinets and all over me. I got angry and frustrated, started to cry and wanted to give up. For a split second I thought, God I am so tired. I think I’ll leave this juice and clean it up later. As I thought that, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in that small, still voice that only He can do and said, “Sin is like that juice; we can either go to the Father and ask for forgiveness as soon as we sin OR we can let it sit a while and it becomes sticky, icky and much harder to clean up. So I wiped my tears and took care of the mess not waiting for it to become nasty.
This lesson can apply to anything in life whether it is the physical cleaning up after ourselves, miscommunication with friends and loved ones, holding a grudge, or sinful behavior. Do you take care of things as soon as they happen or do you wait for them to become messy?
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I like this picture. All too often I have left ‘messes’ to become sticky and hardened. And you are right–it is much more difficult to clean up. I am learning to clean up immediately, regardless of how I feel at the moment. It is a much better way to go, but does require a much needed death of pride on occasion!