Stomped Toes and Heaps of Mercy

Anybody out there but me have an ‘amen’ when I say I dislike the time change?

At least my Christmas lights are up to cheer me.

As I started to reset this little clock in the bathroom, I had my usual ‘this is a great topic for an object lesson’ moment. I wish I could set the clock back several seconds. But alas! There is no turning back. What’s done is done.

Bless his heart, the preacher this morning must have had on a heavy pair of size 29 construction worker boots! Between Pastor and good old James, my toes are plenty sore!

But I guess despite sore toes, my heart didn’t totally get the drift of the message. Somewhere along the way, this wicked heart of mine hasn’t been submitted enough to God to get the change I needed to have today. Mercy! Even with my underlining the words in my Bible and diligently taking notes, I missed the mark. Not even eight hours later, I was thinking and spouting something my mama woulda washed out my mouth for! Mercy again!

James 3 has a lot to say about taming the tongue and the root cause of a salty mouth. I not only stumbled in word, I fell face first into a pit of resentment and anger. Wrong, wrong, wrong on every action. Mercy Big Time!

Sometimes, I want to wash out my own mouth with soap! And my emotions – well, I need an extra bridle to tame them like James said we need to tame the tongue.

The only redeeming factor in this katharses is Jesus does forgive me when I ask. And with His help and a lot more persistence and determination on my part, I won’t get my panties in a knot again about this issue. Even as I wrote this, I know there will be occasion again to let my thoughts and words take a wrong path. Maybe next time, I will pray more and trust God more to keep in control. Even though my word and thoughts were behind a person’s back, it was still wrong. No one would know of my errant behavior had I not confessed here.

But my katharses does give me opportunity to clear my thoughts. Perhaps I can even bless someone by sharing this word I am claiming as today’s proof of God’s perfect mercy – ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Blessings

Kara Beth