One of my sisters and I got into trouble often, but one particular infraction best illustrates my point. We were teenagers at the time. Our parents left us at home alone one evening while they went to visit prospective church members. It was our responsibility to wash and dry the dishes and clean up the kitchen after supper. As usual, we were giggling and acting goofy. I don't remember what triggered it, but one of us started a food fight. We had mashed potatoes in our hair, on our faces, and on the ceiling! We scurried to clean up the mess on ourselves, the counter tops, the table, and the floor, but we also had managed to get some on the ceiling. I had the brilliant idea to get it off the ceiling with the mop. The problem was that we had a coal furnace and it left a film of dust on the ceiling. We didn't have textured ceilings back in the day. We had some kind of slick surface, and to this day I do not know what it was. I made the first swoop of the mop across the ceiling. Somehow, it didn't seem enough to simply remove the mashed potatoes off the ceiling. I continued by drawing a tic-tac-toe board on it. Jeaneane and I played our little game of tic-tac-toe, laughing all the while. We didn't think a thing about anybody looking up there.
Mother and Daddy arrived home. "Jeaneane! Pamela! Get in here!" We knew we were in trouble. After we went through the rounds of, "She started it." "I did not!" "Yes you did!", we got tickled. Big mistake! Mother was the one who took the reins. "Well, since you think it's so funny, you two can get up early in the morning and wash down the kitchen and the bathroom."
Washing down the kitchen and bathroom took most of the day. We managed to giggle our way through that, too, but I can tell you that we never played tic-tac-toe on the ceiling with a mop again.
Sin is like that. You start out innocently and before you know it, you are deeper and deeper into it. You start lying to cover it up, but the truth comes out in the end, and then there's the consequences. That's the tough part, consequences!
There are many examples of sin and repentance in the Bible. God forgives sin, but there is always a price to pay. Adam and Eve sinned and they bore many consequences of their sin. They were forced to leave the most beautiful place on earth, the Garden of Eden. They had to work for their food. Eve was cursed with the pain of childbirth. (Thank you Eve!) David sinned. He was sorrowful about his sins and repented of them, but boy did he pay!
Jesus paid the price for all of our sins with his death on the cross, but we still sin. He doesn't expect us to lead a perfect and sin-free life, but He expects us to lead a holy one. This means that when we are faced with temptation, we need to make the conscious decision to run from it. This is why Ephesians 6:11 tells us to, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." This means that we are to have a solid foundation by knowing God's Word. We are to be in an attitude of prayer continually. We are to listen to that voice within us, the Holy Spirit, that warns us. The more we do this, the less times we will be saying, "I can't believe I did that again!"
Pam Archer
Women's Ministry Director
