Stink bugs part 2

Not to be redundant, but these little creatures are annoying. Did you know that they climb up under siding to hibernate and under piles of unraked or undisposed of leaves? They will eat your fruits and vegetables and not one or two at a time. No, they will take a bite in this one and then move over to that one until the whole harvest is ruined bit by bit. As the days get cooler they are attracted inside the house where it's warm so they can "bug" us. There is little to ward them off unless you want to smell like stink bug spray.

So if you will allow me to continue the analogy from last week, the little sins and bad habits that we pick up without recognition of their ability to mess with our lives and make it uncomfortable if not destroy it little by little are sometimes not as noticeable as when they are flying in our face and stinking right in front of us.

There are times when they hide under the siding of our "house" in out of the way places that we can't see or notice until the following season of life when we think we have moved forward, only to find these nasty little creatures crawling out from their hiding spot.

Or we have areas of neglect like the unkempt yard with the leaves for their resting spot. Our lives get cluttered with the natural results of life happenings. Like the leaves that fall from our trees every fall there is clutter in our spiritual lives and emotional life that left untended they pile up around our hearts, leaving hiding spots for the nasty little habits and sins that surround them like anger, jealousy, bitterness, laziness, and others. Those things may lay dormant under the pile of "leaves" until the warmth of the next season in our lives brings them up or a storm comes along and blows them aside with enough warmth to stir the bugs to life. Then we may wonder where it came from.

When the storms blow them out it can be a mess. Both the stuff that should have been dealt with before and now all these little critters attached to it are messing up your day. When the warmth of the spring brings them out we may not even recognize that they have emerged as it happens so subtly. But then we see the "fruit" in our lives, the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23) being bitten and ruined bit by bit until our harvest is worthless.

It would do us good to be mindful to rake our spiritual yards and take care of the house. Even when things seem good and life is flowing smooth it is wise to sit before Him and say, "Is there anything hidden that I need to tend to, Lord?" And then wait, look, listen. See what he will show you.

And so I wish you well tended homes, yards raked clean, and the sweet fresh breath of the Spirit to blow freshly around you and through you.