Dog Puke

I realize that dog puke isn't the most appealing name for a first post,and I know you're thinking 'how does dog vomit relate to God?" However, stick with me on this one.

Every morning when I wake up there is an epic battle between the part of me that knows I do, in fact, need to get up and take care of my kids, and the side that wants to just go back to sleep. The kids win. This morning as I was taking them downstairs in my usual morning fog I noticed a pile of something on the landing of my staircase-- dog puke. For those of you who don't know me, or my awesome dog, her name is Ginny (yes, as in Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter) and she is 75 pounds of pure love and awesomeness with a wagging tail. That being said, she is gross. Seriously, gross. She is slobbery, smelly, licks at herself, and as the title of this post alludes, she vomits on my floor.

Back to the story, I take the kids downstairs and get them their breakfast. I then begin to prep myself for the awful task of cleaning up said pile. The usual 'breathe through the mouth not the nose!' and 'I will not puke! I will not puke!' were the mantras that I chose this morning. So, I cleaned up the pile and the staircase it was on. I realized that it was very grassy. A little background for you in case you're not a dog lover; when a dog has eaten something that is making them feel sick, they will eat grass in an attempt to make themselves throw up. Sort of a binge-and-purge of the doggy world.

This got me to thinking, Ginny knew enough to purge her body of the things that were making her sick, do I? I'm not talking physical stuff here.

Numbers 33;51-53 "'Speak to the Isrealites and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess." God had told Moses that before the Isrealites settled in the promised land they would need to drive out all the wicked inhabitants and destroy their idols. Not just go in a settle near them. Not just go in and settle and don't associate with them. Destroy them. In Colossians Paul addresses the New Testament church on this EXACT thing and how it relates to life in Christ:
Colossians 3:5 "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature..." He goes on to list some things, but the Holy Spirit was realy just speaking to me about this particular section "WHATEVER belongs to your earthly nature. Anything. All of it. Not just the things that other people may or may not see as "wrong."

I think what struck my in both of these sections was that in both the Old Testament and the New, the people had to make this change. In the Old Testament it was the Isrealites who had to go into the promised land and purge it of the wicked people. In the New Testament Paul is instructing the church to purge themselves of their wicked ways. It doesn't say 'believe in Jesus and life will be easy.' It doesn't say 'God will take all your problems away.' And it certainly doesn't say 'You won't have anything to overcome once you're a Christian.'

There are days when I still struggle with my "earthly naure" okay, who am I kidding, I have 2 kids under 5, it's like a daily struggle to stay sane in this house. These passages, and the revelation from the Holy Spirit that came with it, was amazing. It is MY job to purge my body of the earthly things. MY job to make sure that this "promised land" is fit for my King. Of course God will help along the way, but it definitely gave me a wake-up call to some of the things that people assume you just "don't do" once you become a Christian.

I have moments where I get super angry and I find myself attempting to pray "help me not be angry." and a lot of times in my prayer time I hear God speak to me and say "practice not being angry." WOAH! Okay God, you have my attention!