“When was the last time you changed your socks?” Should be a pretty straightforward question right. Apparently not to a 6 and 8 year old. Of all the battles we have in our home, and with 4 kids there are quite a few, changing socks has to rank near the top. You know we get the standard arguments over not wanting to go to bed, who has control of the remote, even what they want to eat. I get that, not everyone wants to eat peas, and would rather have pizza everyday. Am I right? Come on now though, a meltdown over changing socks. So we press the question a bit. Here is a glimpse of the conversation.
“When was the last time you changed them?” The hesitation begins and then, “Maybe 2-3 days ago, followed by the I think.”
“But you bathed since then.”
“Yeah what’s your point dad.” Eli replies glaring back at me.
“And you put the same socks back on?” Lindsey chimes in shaking her head.
This is now followed by the confused, “I’m sorry, but why do we have to change our socks everyday?”
I am now fighting back many sarcastic remarks going through my mind and all I can do is start to laugh as I bluntly say to them, “because you stink.”
Now I would love to get on their case a little bit more about this. The truth is though as adults we can stink at times too. There will be days Linds will come home from work, walk in the door, and as I go to give her a kiss, she stops me and says “something stinks.” We start searching the house, is it the dogs, is it wet shoes what is it? After a few moments of searching, we circle back and realize the smell is coming from me. “Did you shower today?” Now I am beyond the point in life where I get embarrassed to easily so i just start laughing and go, “I ran out of time this morning, but I did use body spray, doesn’t that count?”
You may be wondering how this all ties into anything spiritual but I promise you it does. God has actually been working on my heart all week about it, so it is one of those messages that speaks to me as much as it may to you. It all started a few weeks back when my dad spoke a message entitled “Stinking thinking.” For some reason, God will not let that out of my mind and expanded it from stinkin thinkin to stinkin livin.
In John 8, Jesus forgives the adulterous woman. At the end of the story he says to her, “neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more.” Many of us have memorized that story, we love that story, pointing out that their is forgiveness in Jesus. The downfall is that we skip the point where he tells us to repent, to change, to go and sin no more. Can you imagine with me the woman looking at Him and saying, “Thank you for forgiving me, but why do I have to change?” Not quite the story we read, yet somehow it is how many of us live. God calls us to change, to leave our life of sin, but instead we try to push the limit of what we can get away with. “Jesus, it is all I know, Jesus it is what everyone else is doing, Jesus, I’m not as bad as the next guy, why do I need to change?” I can picture Him then writing in the sand some more, “Because your sin stinks, I want to give you a pure heart, a clean heart, a changed life.”
Maybe a better analogy for you is the one of the body spray. Where we know we’ve been changed but we allow certain areas to just linger in our lives. We know it is still there but when it comes to others we try to hide it. We think if no one else knows, does it really count, does it really still stink? As long as no one knows I talked about them behind their back, cheated the system, or looked at certain things. I can just cover it up with some body spray to make myself smell better on the outside right. Jesus addresses that very bluntly also.
Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Talk about a stench. So how are we supposed to live then?
Ephesians 4: 22-23 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Are you seeking God daily and allowing Him to convict you of areas that an odor to them? This is a lifelong process becoming like Him. It isn’t a snap of the fingers, wake up one day and everything is perfect. It is a daily surrender, allowing God to work in your life changing you from the inside out.
Amen, Brother!!! You are right on the money!!! Thanks