1 John 1:9 – But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.

Gratitude Day 811

Some days, I amaze myself.

Other days? Not so much.

Yesterday was one of those “I can’t believe …” days.

I am a multitasker. I know. It is better to focus on just one thing at a time. Well, this was doubly proven to me once again.

In the morning before heading into my home office, I put something on the stove to cook. My plan was to get a jump on lunch. Pretty soon, I was answering emails, prioritizing my to-do list, making arrangements for our eldest granddaughter to come over after school. I noticed a funny smell but kept on working away.

In a few minutes, the smell grew stronger and I still ignored it, thinking Hubby Rick must be up to something. Finally, I walked into the kitchen for something and found a blue cloud of smoke settled into the kitchen, dining area and living room area. And I remembered. Those apples were on the stove!!

Ugh. Seriously. While I had water in the bottom of the pan, I found a charred black mess on the bottom of the pan. I scraped out as much as I could dumped it into the garage and thought to myself, “Now what?”

The bottom of the pan was still very charred and black. Not just the bottom, but also up along the edges. I kept asking myself how a college-educated person with a master’s degree could simply forget that something was on the stove? And ignored the smells when they wafted down the hall and into my office?

I was smart enough to anticipate that dealing with the mess right away was better than waiting until I had more time. I dumped baking soda and water into the hot pan and quickly realized this hot mess needed more than an amateur response.

So, I found a container of cleaning products that guarantees to remove every mess. HA!! Not this one! I scrubbed and scrubbed and while some of the mess disappeared, a lot more remained.

Then, I remembered hearing how using a dishwashing soap tablet might do the trick. Once again, it helped but there remained lots of black charred stuff in the pan. As time crept by, I wondered if it might be easier and more cost effective to simply buy a new pan.

The dishwashing tablet worked better than I thought. As I scrubbed and scrubbed away at the mess, I realized that maybe there was a little lesson in this hot mess. And would I stop long enough to let myself see it?

As much as we do not like to admit it, there are times when we each do things that pull us away from God, other people and ourselves. Sometimes, we intentionally do something that hurts someone else. Yes, we each have gotten ourselves into pickles where we aren’t honest, or only tell part of the truth. We tell a story and embellish it so that we look more like the hero or victim than we really are.

When we allow these sins to take root in our hearts and lives, they affect us. Our hearts get charred. Our souls become disenfranchised. We find ourselves in a situation where we can’t undo our sin and it just causes more and more disruption in our lives. Soon, this sin takes over more of our lives than we’d care to admit.

I know it’s less than popular to talk about sin and our shortcomings these days. But as I scrubbed on that pan yesterday and felt like I was making very little progress, I began to see my sin more through the eyes of God. I keep thinking that I can eliminate the charred mess but I can’t. No matter how much scrubbing or how many different products I enlist to help me, only God can remove the sin. Period.

Thank goodness God comes around and is willing to remove and take care of our sin, even when we do not deserve this reprieve. God is the only one that can fix our sin, which happens through God’s son, Jesus. Jesus takes care of our sin and makes us clean again. This happens because Jesus is willing to take on our sin for us. If Jesus didn’t, then we’d remain a bit old mess like my pot.

It became very humbling yesterday to realize just how much God has given up for my benefit. For your benefit. We don’t need special products and scrubbies and other things to remove our sin. We just have to ask God to help us out.

On these Saturday posts, I often share what has been inspiring me lately. Well, a messy pot sure spoke to me yesterday. We can find God’s inspiration all around us if we just take the time to allow ourselves to witness it.

What else has been inspiring me lately?

If you have been following the weekly Bible ready plan, you would know that we were in the book of Leviticus this week. Honest? It’s a very laborious book to read. Rule after rule after room. Thank goodness, the person who planned this reaching schedule knew there needed to be something to break all those rules. Psalms allows us to be inspired. Amazingly one of the verses that spoke to me this week ties into the messy pot.

This short video is SO GOOD! I wished that I had come up with this list of things that can drain our energy. You will want to watch this!

A great reminder that God is always with us.

Homemade Valentine’s are THE BEST. A little personal indulgence here, so please be patient with me. The beginning of the week, I was gone for a couple days, helping my sister who is a florist. Naturally, Valentine’s Day is super busy for her. Before I left, I mentioned a couple projects Hubby Rick could work on in one of our bathrooms while I was gone if he felt so motivated.

Rick has made me homemade Valentine’s multiple times. Here is this year’s. I hope it makes you smile!

For the appreciation of God’s willingness to clean up all of my sin messes, I am grateful.

Blessings –

Holy One – You amazingly simply wipe away our sins. How amazing is this. Thank you for loving me and everyone else to the point that you do not want sin to separate us from You. And so, you took care of it. Amen.

P.S. – I haven’t removed Rick’s Valentine yet. I just haven’t had the heart to!

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