If You Can't Stand The Heat, PART TWO

Fast forward from last week's blog post to my kitchen experience from yesterday. What do you get? You get "If You Can't Stand The Heat PART TWO"! :-) The blogging experience continues...

I made my famous homemade hamburgers yesterday. If you haven't had one, you're missing out. Aside from that, I learned yet another lesson in my kitchen. What's great about God teaching us is that it never ends. He is ever-teaching and if we are sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, we can be ever-learning. He continues to build on those things that He has already taught us/revealed to us. Continuing in a particular lesson can lead to a greater understanding of the lesson as a whole.

Let's review! Last week's blog post talked about dealing with things before they settle into our hearts and souls and become a part of who we are. "Things" can be problems, doubts, fears, weaknesses, sins, etc. What we do not want is to sweep our issues under a rug. Eventually, there will be a insurmountable pile under that rug that you will have to deal with. We also do not want to try and handle things on our own. God has told us to allow Him to fight our battles. He has admonished us to cast our cares on Him. He is the potter (Isaiah 64:8)!

What I learned from this week is to clean up as I go along. In other words (for the sake of this blog discussion), what I learned from this week is to acknowledge any problem or sin immediately and go to God with it even faster. I don't need to tell you that by doing this very thing you will alleviate so much spiritual clutter in your lives. I didn't want to repeat the cleaning process I had to endure last week. So this is what happened this week. Stay with me...

I used a bowl to mix and season the ground meat. I used a plate to place the prepared patties on. I used a pan to bake them in. I used a plate to cut the lettuce and tomatoes on. I used a knife to cut the lettuce and tomatoes. I used a plate to actually put the lettuce and tomatoes on after I'd cut them. I used four additional plates to actually serve myself, my husband and two children. I used a spatula to get the patties out of the pan. During my culinary task, my children wanted juice. That's two more cups. Add two more cups for my husband and I. I used a spoon to scoop the mayonnaise. I used a butter knife to cut the burgers in half for my children. Add all of these dishes up and you get another dirty kitchen!

However, I learned from my past mistake of letting dishes pile up and the particles of food in the pots settle. This time I washed dishes and cleaned as I went along. The dishes from the previous paragraph didn't exist by the time I served my family. Each and every dish, utensil, and pan had been put away. Other than the plates we were eating on, the kitchen was cleaned.

I was able to enjoy the rest of my day without worrying or stressing over when I'd have time to clean my kitchen.

Do you get it? God wants us to enjoy our lives in Him. It is not His will that we stress and worry over the things that He has already conquered through Jesus Christ. Go to Him right away! Repent for the sin(s) you commit right away! The Bible says, "lay aside every weight... let us run with patience..." (Hebrews 12:1, KJV). You are not meant to carry those burdens. You cannot "run with patience" if you are stressed, worried, and bogged down with the "cares of this world" (Mark 4:19, KJV).

Our ONLY job is to clean up as we go. How do we do that? I'll answer that question with a verse from one of my favorite hymns.

What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!

Lesson learned!

Until next time, Pretty Girls... xoxo

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If You Can't Stand The Heat...

I washed dishes today for the first time in about a week. Don't judge me. It happens to me sometimes when my husband and I are busy :-) There are times when we only come home to freshen up just to leave out again. Of course this leads to stacks of dishes, piles of clothes, and other undone housework. I'm not complaining... just painting a picture.

As I was finishing up the dishes, I noticed a pot on the back of the stove. It was the same pot that I used to cook some mashed potatoes for my husband one night to go with some baked chicken. Remnants of the potatoes were left in this pot. Don't forget that it had been sitting on the stove for days. Yikes!

What should have been a fifteen to twenty minute chore quickly turned into a forty to fifty minute chore. At first I scrubbed. That got some of the potatoes out. Next, I tried scraping the bottom of the pot with a fork. That wasn't working either. Finally, I knew what I had to do. 

I put just enough water in the pot to cover the bottom. I put the pot back onto the stove and turned the eye on high. The best way to get rid of the residue was to boil it until it loosened. After that, I knew that  I could then scrape up the particles and wash the pot with ease.

Frustrated, I watched the water get hotter and hotter until it was rapidly boiling. That's when it hit me! 

We, Pretty Girls, are just like the pot in many ways. We allow things to fester in our hearts and souls for long periods of time. The longer we allow our problems/issues/sins/weaknesses to sit, the longer it will take to "clean" us and rid us of our infirmities. Most of the time we wouldn't have to encounter the "fire" if we would take our burdens to the Lord immediately.

In this society, we are made to think we are Superwoman and can take on and conquer any problem. I agree that women are very strong. However, we cannot ever make the mistake of taking on the role of God in our lives by trying to fix ourselves.

Remember how I was scrubbing the pot at first? It didn't help one bit. When we try and fix ourselves, we end up expending unnecessary energy and tiring ourselves out with little or no results. What's not so shocking about my entire scenario is that if I had put water in the pot the same day I cooked the potatoes, I wouldn't have had to clean it so intensely days later.

In His word, God is constantly urging us and calling us. He wants us to cast our cares on Him (1Peter 5:7). We cannot continue to do things on our own. If you know you have a problem, or if you're struggling with a particular sin, go to Him now! Go to Him before your problems have any more time to settle into your soul. Go to Him before you have to be refined by fire. Whenever, however... Just go to Him. He's waiting.

Until next time, Pretty Girls... xoxo