Pick Up Sticks.

For the last few days I have been picking up sticks!  We had a huge storm last weekend and our yard was COVERED in sticks.

At first I thought the job wouldn't be that bad.  I started in the backyard and just filled the boys little swimming pool.  Things started out pretty good.  It was a beautiful day and the boys thought it was pretty fun to help (that lasted about 5 minutes).  I started by getting the big sticks.  They were easy to spot and easy to pick up.  I ran into trouble when all that was left were the little sticks.  There were TONS of them.

As I walked through the backyard picking up stick, after stick, after stick and watching the pile get bigger and bigger.  I wondered if this whole picking up sticks things was anything like my life.

I thought about sin.  Even though God doesn't see our sins on some kind of rating scale we are humans tend to rate our sins.  You know, there are the big sins like murder and adultery.  And then we like to think of things like lying or laziness as little sins.

But as I was out there picking up all those little sticks I wondered if my backyard was like my heart.  I am pretty good at making sure I keep the "BIG" sins out my heart.  But what about all those little sins...the little white lie, or the choice to be selfish, the ugly attitude, or the times when I left my anger get the best of me.  If I am not careful my heart will be just like my backyard...full of the little sticks (sins).

To be honest what I thought would be an easy job became overwhelming when I took a close look at how many little sticks there were.  In fact it took me three days and there are still lots more out there. 

That's how it is with my heart sometimes too.  I start out excited with a new bible study or I decide to make a fresh commitment to spending time with God in the mornings instead of trying to fit Him in when I can.  I start with this vision of the godly woman I am going to be.   But then I get out there and I see up close all of the work that needs to be done...all of the "sticks" that need to be picked up and I get overwhelmed and decide it's just too much (there it is again...that little laziness "stick").

I wonder how different my life would be if I would be determined, the way I have been with the sticks, to just keep going at it day after day after until God has made me into that godly woman I desire to be?

Wow...who would have thought I could learn so much from a bunch of sticks!