Sticky Stuff

What kid doesn't like stickers?  And what grandparent can resist getting their grandchild what they want for a birthday or Christmas?  For that matter, who doesn't like sticky stuff?!?  Well, Reanna got several birthday gifts this weekend that involved stick stuff. =?  I'm not really an artsy person, but so far, I have 2 daughters who are.  They love all those creative craftsy things...  And we spent the better part of Saturday (when I wasn't cooking & changing diapers) putting her craftsy gifts together.  One of these was a mosaic picture with self adhesive foam squares-- a fancy way of saying super thick stickers! ;)  The thing is, most of these come with too many stickers-- I guess in case you mess up or want to diverge from the instructions... =?  The result of those extra stickers has been "sticky stuff" on my feet for the last 3 days!

I love to be barefoot, but I HATE stepping on "sticky stuff"!  And my children don't seem to have the same aversion. =P  So I was thinking yesterday as I pulled yet ANOTHER wad of stickers off my feet, how I could blog about sticky stuff! =)  And I have it!  Have you noticed how sin patterns tend to "stick" to you?  Maybe you don't, but I will be "walking" along, thinking everything is ok, when all of a sudden the Lord shows me a rather obvious sin pattern on my "foot"! =P  And like the stickers littering my floor, these sin patterns keep attaching to me!

So I followed that train of thought a little farther, and was reminded that "my sin" is more than just the things I do.  Every part of me is messed up by sin, and just like tape is attracted to itself, sin patterns are attracted to the sin that resides in me! =P  The good news is that God's grace is active in my life, and His grace is GREATER than all my sin! =)

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Romans 7:18-24

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:1-5