The 40 Day Journey - Day 25 (Confession)

I took my dad to an appointment today. About 30 minutes before picking him up I thought I better vacuum out the car.  Life with kids, carpooling, playground gravel, snacking, all evidence of a good portion of our days spent in the car. I wanted the car nice for my dad. Right then I knew how I'd spend my hour today.

It was a quick connection for me this time.  I wanted the car clean for my dad, not because he expected it or asked for it, but because I love him.  This led to the realization of my desire to be clean before my Heavenly Father.  1 John 1:9 quickly came to mind, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

I looked up some verses on confession and forgiveness and realized I was getting distracted from the task at hand.  Confess.  I tried to focus, but was having a hard time.  I finally found some piano worship music and then did a little bit of yoga breathing my friend Michelle taught me.  I was finally relaxed and focused.

I figured I would just start confessing any sin that came to mind.  But I stopped after a few and decided to go back to when I woke up and start from there, let's just do this right.

When I was cleaning the car I did a quick clean up and vacuum, but then I started looking under the seats (found a spoon that is not ours with food that has been dried on for a very long time!).  It is quite amazing what can be found when you start searching.

And so I searched deeper for any sin that needed to be confessed.  And that is how my time went, from confessing my laziness, getting up late, being impatient with the kids, speeding, assuming something unkind about another mom...I'm just going to stop.  You don't need to know all of my sins.

I remembered that after my dad got in the car this morning, the windows fogged up a bit. I quickly noticed Julia's foot prints on the window, directly in front of my dad (if you know Julia this makes perfect sense!). More was revealed that needed to be cleaned.

I asked God what sin was "hiding" that maybe I didn't see at first.  I realized that some of my sins are just little shoots off of a bigger vine.  Thinking poorly of that other mom was sin, yes.  But why was I quick to judge?  Pride.  I thought I was better than her.  Ouch.  I hate pride..is that sin?? So I spent some more time asking God to gently reveal any other root sins.   Fortunately my time ran out before I was completely leveled.  Or unfortunately.

Bindweed is pretty, but an awful weed! 

I think that is how I have approached confessing my sins.  Just pluck out those small weeds on the surface. In the mean time these long vines take deep root. Pretty soon you are not sure if they are flowers or weeds.  It takes much more to recognize them for what they are and to dig them out.  One way to prevent weeds from growing deep roots is to pull them quickly before they become a bigger problem.  The way to deal with these sins, is to confess them.  He is faithful and righteous and will cleanse us from all of our sin.

It is costly to allow these weeds to stay around too long. So, what do you think...time for some weeding?

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