Styrofoam sin

Ahh, the bi-monthly Saturday ritual- mowing the lawn.

As I was out cutting the grass, a tiny piece of styrofoam caught my eye. Now my lawn is definitely more "Malcolm in the Middle" than "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" but I bent over to pick it up anyway. I noticed another piece a few feet away. Then another, and then another. I realized that I must have shredded a cup underneath the mower without realizing it.

I spent the next minutes grumbling as I picked up the pieces. If I would have just been more careful, I could have simply picked up the little cup before it got chopped up. Instead I found myself bending over to get a squillion little pieces of styrofoam.

But isn't sin just like that? One lie, one lustful thought, one cheat- one little sin can turn into many shredded pieces in our lives just like that. The bible says in James 1:15 that "after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." The more you allow sin to spread and grow, the worse off it is going to be. The more it is left unchecked, the more pieces get strewn about. It is so much easier to stop it before it starts. Don't let the enemy even have a foothold.

Lord, give us all the strength to pick up the little cup before it is shredded all over the landscape of our lives.