Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Lysol is my holy water


Have you ever noticed the things you want your children to share they don't, and the things you don't want them to share, they do? How is that? Why is that? A friend of mine calls his son "the carrier." Our children are little carriers of cooties and germs. They share with their friends and bring home new germs and cooties.
On more than one occasion one of my kids has been a carrier. One time in particular caused the spread of a terrible stomach virus. It was the kind that you need a trash can and a toilet at the same time. Patrick, my husband, was the first to go down as is the normal routine of things. I had him posted in our master bathroom. Erin went down next. Before she was three years old, the Rotovirus put her in the hospital twice and dehydrated her within one hour of the onset of symptoms. I put Erin in the ½ bath closest to the master bedroom. Then Pearce awoke with the same symptoms, and I had him in the kids bathroom. I remember kind of panicking because all three bathrooms were tied up. I didn't have a pot to pee in much less get sick in! I prayed that God would have grace and spare me this horrible illness, so I could tend to my family. At 2 AM in the morning, I'm running to the drugstore for a prescription the on-call doctor had called in.
I really hate stomach viruses. I don't know how truly effective Lysol products are, but when the love starts spreading in my house, I break out the Lysol wipes and wipe everything down. Then the Lysol spray becomes my holy water to fight off the fangs of the nasty beast of the stomach virus. For me, nothing is worse than this type of stomach bug.
 There are times in my life, in my career, in my marriage, and in my relationships that I wish I could clean up the mess I made with a Lysol wipe. I wish I could wipe away the negativity I had spread. I want to take out the infection of complacency that I have modeled. I want to kill the nasty words in which I have said that infected the air negatively. And while nothing can fix my mess-ups in life, there is One who wipes my slate clean. Though my sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). There are consequences for my actions or inactions, but thankfully, God doesn't hold my sin against me when I will stand before Him one day. My sin will be wiped away as far as the east is from the west (Psalms 103:12). Now that's clean. That is grace and redemption at its best. Thank you, Jesus.

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