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