Fight the Grunge

I HATE cleaning the bathroom. It's the room where we get clean, but to me, it feels like the dirtiest room in the house! =P When I was perpetually pregnant, and all-day queasy, I kept the bathroom pretty clean-- because I hated throwing up into a dirty toilet. But since I haven't had a "bun in the oven" for nearly six years, it's kind of fallen down on the list of priorities. I get in there every few months and give it a good scrubbing, each time promising myself that it won't be such a long stretch before I clean again... and it ALWAYS IS! There is one thing though, that is proven to motivate me to clean the most stubborn parts of my house. Sickness. I hate spreading the germs that make my Crew-- or my Shorty & me-- sick. And since a second member of my Crew is now suffering from the flu, you guessed it, I started scrubbing the bathroom.

I think the Lord delights in talking to me when my hands are busy. When I am washing dishes, scrubbing the bathroom, polishing furniture, sewing, or some home improvement project I have lots of time to think. And often, I get illustrations of biblical concepts. So back to the bathroom. I have been thinking for over a month that I needed to scrub the tub. It was looking pretty dirty, but I put it off in favor of other pressing, and just plain fun, holiday activities. As I got down on my knees to begin cleaning, I realized just HOW DIRTY the tub REALLY was! There were about four different shades of tan and brown, and there are flecks of orange that I still haven't been able to get off or identify! =P

And as I was getting my arm workout in, I was thinking about how sin patterns creep into my life. If one of the kids had come in the day after I last cleaned the bathtub (whenever that was) and caked on the grime that I scrubbed off today, I would have recognized it and cleaned it again right away. But since the grunge built up over the course of months, I was kind of desensitized to it. And sin is like that, too. If it comes in bold, we recognize it. But if it takes us little bits, by little bits, we tend to rationalize it, or ignore it, or tolerate it... So ask the Lord to open your eyes to the sin patterns in your life, and then Fight the Grunge!

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
James 1:13-15
 
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:6-9