Tackle It Tuesday - The Ziploc Bag

Have you ever had one of those Ziploc bags, hanging over your head? All you potty training moms know what I’m talking about, the gallon size one that is filled with clothes your child has gone #2 in while you were out somewhere. Your precious, adorable offspring that nearly always makes it to the potty, but that day they just couldn’t.

For me that day over a year ago, we were at the park, so she was playing (distracted) and she was on some medicine that maybe kind of upset her stomach a little. I knew when I spotted her up on the playground with that telltale walk before she even told me what happened. The moments that ensued were not very pleasant.

Cleaning a child up in the car just is not fun and neither is pulling off poopy tights! “Yucky, yucky, gross, gross!” is what I kept saying outloud to keep myself focused on the mess rather than being annoyed at the child that produced it. Anyway, literally 17 wipees later she was fairly clean and I was left with the lovely Ziploc bag filled with, well you know. And then I was faced with the age-old decision. “Do I like the clothes in that bag enough to deal with cleaning them up or do I just throw them away?!!”

Come on! I know you’re calling me wasteful for even having the thought, but really, do you realize the process that goes into cleaning up that bag? First there is the initial overwhelming smell upon opening the bag, then where do you put the soiled clothes? They are too dirty for even the washing machine to bear. They must be dealt with a little before the washing machine step and any surface they come in contact with, be it sink or counter must be thoroughly sanitized following! So sometimes the answer really is to throw the entire bag away.

That is certainly the answer some times when we deal with sin (messes) in our lives. It is Biblical, Matthew 18:8-9 says, “And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than having two hands or feet, to be cast into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into fiery hell.”

Whatever that sin is, there are times that God tells you to throw it out, because He knows either it won’t really come clean or we can’t handle the cleaning process!

What is in your Ziploc Bag?

For me it is alcoholism. It runs in my family. Thankfully the Lord brought this to my attention during my college years and revealed to me to throw it out by staying away from alcohol, so that sin has not plagued me. I could have tried to clean it up – “I’ll just have a couple drinks in the evening but I’ll not over-consume like my parents did.” But, that thinking may not have worked. Those few drinks may have been all Satan needed to get a foothold in my life and lead me down the pathway of destruction!

In closing let me urge you to deal with that bag of sin in whatever way God leads you, but do it soon! I know from experience that ziploc bag just gets nastier the longer you let it sit!

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