When Things Get Messy

It's amazing how God uses children to remind us of simple truths.  Tonight, I was reminded of something important by there being poop on my couch.  Yes, as gross as that sounds, this blog was inspired by a toddler who didn't listen to Mommy, and ended up making things a little messy.

Instead of being at church, I'm at home with Owen tonight since he's not feeling well.  I noticed that something was a bit stinky, so I did what anyone else would do, and I changed a diaper.  At least, I attempted to change one.  As much as I'd like for Owen to use the potty, he's not quite old enough, and/or not ready to be potty trained.  We try to tell him, "don't poop in your diaper, poop goes in the potty," but so far that's only happened once, and I'm pretty sure that was a fluke.  So we spend lots of time changing diapers, and we often have to remind Owen to lay still when we are changing his diaper, because being still isn't something he likes to do....EVER!  Like most parents do, we do our best to warn our children to not do things that aren't good for them, or could hurt them, and teach them things that they need to know.

Owen is very fast, and unfortunately for me, at about 7 months pregnant, I am not.  I had laid him down on the floor, and as soon as I got his diaper off, he got away and ran towards the couch on the other side of the room.  I said, "Owen come back," but he decided to start climbing up on the couch, and tried to stand up on it.  My instinct of course was then to say, "Owen get down", but as I run towards him, he sits down, which is how the couch got messy.  I had tried to help him by changing him, but instead of letting me help him get out of a little mess, he got away from me, and made a bigger mess.

For those who weren't too grossed out by that, and continued reading, here's where God used this moment to remind me of His truth.  Like a good parent, he tells us what we should and shouldn't do in His word.  He has clearly laid out what he expects of us, what we should and shouldn't do and explains that there are consequences for when we don't obey His teachings.

Temptation sometimes catches us off guard.  It takes our focus off of Him and what His word calls us to do.  Not only does he set guidelines for us, but He takes it one step further.  When He realizes something in our lives may be "a little stinky", or we're starting to get ourselves into trouble, we are often reminded of the truth.  It may be the Holy Spirit reminding us, a friend who is bold enough to confront us when they notice the path we are taking, or it could be through our own reading of His word.  Then, we have to make the choice.  We can turn away from what little mess we have started making, and get back on the right path, or we can ignore Him, and delve further into the sin.  If Owen had listened to me from the beginning, he would have laid still when I tried to help him with his diaper, but instead, he ran from me.

Before I changed him, I told him to lay still, he didn't listen. Then I tried to correct him before he made it to the couch, and again he ignored me, and proceeded to run away. By the time I had made my third attempt to stop him from what he was doing, we ended up with a big mess to clean up. Luckily for us, God doesn't given up on us when we start doing something we shouldn't be doing.  He is patient with us, and allows us to make our own choices.  Unfortunately sometimes we don't always make the best decisions, and that causes us to sin.  He lovingly reminds us of why what we are doing is wrong, but then the choice is still ours.  When we fail to heed his warnings, and proceed on our own, we have consequences to pay.  Sometimes the longer we wait to correct our behavior, the worse our consequences are, yet even despite our disobedience, He still loves us.  He still wants us to turn from sin, and back to Him.  It's never too late.  Regardless of how far we've gone, or how many times He has reminded us of His word, He will still accept us with open arms, and will help us get out of the "mess" we are in.