I spent this morning battling stains. Ok, not the whole morning but more of the morning than I would have preferred. One was an ink stain that resided on my husband’s finest dress shirt. He wore it for a couple hours and hung it up as soon as he got home, never seeing the ink. It would be a couple of weeks before he’d wear it again. When he saw the stain he thought to throw the shirt away, figuring it for a goner. I thought otherwise.
The other was a blood stain. A wound on his arm tore open in the middle of the night leaving a good sized spot on our brand new sheets. Our uneven work schedules left him still in bed when I left for work so it would be a few days before I saw that stain.
If you know anything about stains, you know that the sooner you deal with them the more likely they are to come out. The ink came out just fine but I was not as successful with the blood stain. The residual stain would become part of the fabric. Fortunately I could flip the sheet and the stain would be hidden from view.
Stains of the Heart
Our lives have and do get similarly stained. Weak moments and poor choices leave us spotted. We are given the opportunity to keep short accounts with God, bringing our faults and failures to Him as often as we need. 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. When we do, we find the cleansing we seek.
Like stains, we need to deal with our issues before they set in. Left unchecked our poor choices can become habits and our habits lifestyles. We may come to the place where we try to change and clean things up but the residual effects are there. The guilt, the regret and shame become part of the fabric of our lives.
Stain Fighters
While we seem fine to those looking on, the hidden heartache we dare not allow to be seen is still there. But we need not despair. There’s grace. David, the mighty king of Israel and man after God’s own heart committed adultery then murder but eventually cried out to God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10. We can do as David did as find forgiveness and restoration as well.
How About You
Do you think you’ve done too much? That your situation is hopeless? That God wants to cast you aside like some old shirt? God invites you, Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18. It’s a great offer, don’t you think?
God bless you and keep you,
Roxanne
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. ® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Hopefully Devoted 
This was “spot” on, Roxanne, no pun intended. I’ve been working on some pretty hard stains too with some “bibs,” for lack of a better word, that I made for Mom to cover her clothes while she eats. I wash them myself because the facility washes everything together and the laundry never looks clean and stains are always left. I scrub with my favorite stain removing detergent, but nearly always end up turning to my bottle of bleach, the harshest chemical on my shelf, to bring out the stains. The bibs are white again, but the fabric is worn and the thread I used to stitch her name, is beginning to fade as well. Ultimately, my hands pay the biggest price, because they are now red, rough, and chapped. This is a wonderful reminder of how we need to take care of our misdeeds and failures daily so we don’t get out of step with our father. As Mom used to say, “Don’t let your sins pile up until you have a brushfire when you light the fire.” If we’re listening, our father calls us to him as his children, and lovingly and tenderly forgives us, never to be remembered again.
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Thanks for sharing Kathy. Your mom is blessed to have such tender care given to her. So grateful for the ultimate stain removal…forgiveness of sins. Blessings.
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