Science Experiments

I almost though of titling this one, “True Confessions.” It is about my children’s bathroom…

I hate going in there, it is so scary. Evidently my children’s love of science extends beyond just theory and into the experimental stage. Most of the time I go in there I just start asking, “Why?” Not that I have ever been given an answer for the collection of empty shampoo and soap bottles. Or the towels thrown on the floor to start growing mildew. Or the rocks. Yes, you read that correctly, rocks. Pretty much every time I go in to gather dirty laundry off the floor there are rocks on the counter. My only guess is that they wanted clean rocks and were intending to wash them! I will spare you the grosser details of the other discoveries, let’s just say that my kids may be trying to pursue careers in mushroom farming.

In my defense, I have tried everything. Lists. Chore cards. Punishments. Rewards. Pleading. Begging. You get the idea. They will go in and clean when I tell them to, but their idea of clean and my idea of clean are light years apart. In fact we have a term we use, “Mama clean.” They will tell me they have cleaned the bathroom and I will ask them if it is Mama clean. They will assure me that yes, it is. Well, I’m sure you can guess the rest. The only time the bathroom is truly sanitary is when I go in and clean it myself.

I was thinking this is kind of like our lives. Most of us are pretty good at making a mess of things when we are on our own. Then we get this idea that if we want to change or “clean up” our lives, that we can do it by ourselves. The problem with this is that we can never get clean enough. There is only one person who is able to get into the yuckiest places of our souls and really make them new and that is Jesus. The great thing is we don’t have to keep coming back to Him over and over, asking if we are clean enough now. He makes us instantly “Jesus clean” the moment we ask Him to. He forgives us and washes our sins completely away.

“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7