the fridge

It is difficult for me to write tonight.  Three of my kids are jumping on the trampoline.  I was just with them playing “steam roller” and football. 

The entire time I was playing with them I had a running dialogue going in my head about normal sibling behavior.  I feel like they pick, fight, and can be entirely too rough with each other.  I want to pounce on them quite often and fix it all, but then I remember that most of this is a normal family dynamics and that they do get along…sometimes!   

You see, I want kindness around here all the time. I am a peacemaker.  I attempt to be a peacekeeper.  I have to remind myself often that Jesus Christ is the only real peacemaker and peacekeeper.  I am even learning in my forties to be “okay” when things are not “okay.”

Another reason for my unsettled mind is that I saw “War Room.”  It is an amazing movie!  It jolted me in a huge way concerning prayer and faith.  If I ever gather my thoughts and get my brain wrapped around it, I will share. 

For the time being though, I want to share about our freezer.  We have an extra freezer in our laundry room. It is a necessity.  My husband, being the head chef and head grocery shopper, makes good use of it.  He made a trip to HEB last week to stock up on steak and chicken.  He also visited the “shrimp man” and bought a large quantity of shrimp.  (I have no clue who the shrimp man really is)

I noticed last Friday there was some moisture surrounding the freezer.  I opened the door and a few items were beginning to thaw out.  I assumed someone left the door cracked.  I slammed it shut and carried on with my day. 

The next day, I discovered the door being left ajar was not the source of the problem.  The freezer was going out, and the food was consequently thawing out.   

My husband fired up the grill.  He cooked every ounce of meat that he could.  We salvaged other items by transporting them to the kitchen freezer and to the small one over in his shop.   

The remainder of the thawed out mess got trashed.  The assortment of popsicles were a real work of melted art and a few items were totally unidentifiable. I told myself it was time to clean out anyway before deer season.   

I later realized that cleaning out the freezer related to life.  The freezer was not working.  It had to be cleaned out.  After that, it would have been totally crazy to put the ruined items back in the freezer.  The bad food was trash!  It had no purpose now. 

Just like the freezer breaking, sometimes we break.  Sometimes we get to a point that we are not working properly. At that exact moment, we have to clean out.  The old junk has to go!  The ruined junk that has built up is, and sin will only get worse and harder to remove the longer we allow it to stay.   

I have good news though!  Our freezer started to freeze again after it was cleaned out.  Maybe it was just overloaded.  Proverbs 28:13 says “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses them and renounces them finds mercy.”  If you are need of grace and mercy this week, start here.

P.S.  And…how crazy would it be to put the old rancid food back in the clean freezer?  Likewise, how crazy is it when we, forgiven and made new, allow the old sin to creep back in?