Turn on the Light! Mistakes made in the dark

I remember as a child waking up one night with the poison ivy on my leg itching like crazy!  I crept quietly through the dark to the medicine cabinet where I knew I would find the poison ivy aerosol spray.  Still in the dark, I grabbed it and began spraying it on the poison ivy.  It initially gave a cooling effect, but then, as it started to itch again, I sprayed some more, and some more.  Suddenly, I perceived a smell which seemed different than what I had expected, and I realized that I had accidentally grabbed my mom’s aerosol underarm deodorant instead of the poison ivy spray.

Now I can look back and laugh!  It wasn’t a big deal; no one got hurt.  But I did waste product and the money that it had cost for the product.

A much more recent mistake that I made in the dark was putting on what I thought was my roll-on underarm deodorant without turning on the light.  No excuse.  I just thought I knew what I was doing, so I didn’t turn it on.

A few minutes later, I began to wonder why the deodorant was not drying like usual, and then it began to burn a bit.  I realized that I had accidentally grabbed the roll-on Max Freeze ®, which is like an Icy Hot ® product.  Uh oh!  Argh!

I rushed quickly to wash it off before it became extremely uncomfortable or even painful.  As it was, it only caused me some minor, albeit unnecessary, discomfort.

A third mistake I made in the dark was the night before Mother’s Day.  I was walking half asleep through the kitchen to the bathroom, when to my shock, I hit my shin against the dishwasher door, which was open because my sweet teenage son was trying to surprise me by doing the dishes in the middle of the night.  I did not respond well.  It hurt so bad, and I hurt my son’s feelings, even though it was my mistake.

But he was so intent on giving his gracious gift, that he got up two more times during the night to get as much done as he could, even though it made him very tired the next day.

So, what does this have to do with you, besides giving you a good laugh for the day?

Sometimes, as we stumble through the darkness of our lives, we forget to read God’s Word or think on what He has taught us.  We stumble around content to see with only the night light.

Some of those times, we just make silly mistakes that don’t hurt anyone aside from maybe wasting a bit of time or money or bringing discomfort to our relationships because we think we know what we’re doing when we really don’t.  When we hurt others, we ultimately hurt ourselves and God, as well.  Then, we then have to go quickly and do cleanup patrol and ask for forgiveness before it really starts to burn.

Other times we actually hurt ourselves and others, due to our proud, angry responses that come from superimposing our will on God’s.  We hit up against a wall of opposing opinions, and we desire to be in control instead of recognizing Him as the Sovereign Lord and Ruler of our lives.

But even when we grieve Him, He remains intent on blessing us, like my son graciously did for me, in spite of our unloving responses to Him.  For those who have received Jesus as Savior, He has entered into a covenant relationship with us, and He will always be faithful, even when we are not.

The Lord reminded me of something that John the Baptist said concerning the Lord Jesus:

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”  John 3:30

and He also reminded me of the teaching in 1 Peter 2:9 that God has made us a holy priesthood

“so that (we) may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called (us) out of darkness into His marvelous light;”

He has called us.

• Will we we answer Him?
• Will we pray and ask Him to shed light on our life each day?
• Will we search His Word which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path?  (Psalm 119:105)
• Will we draw near to Him, leaving behind our selfish responses, and surrendering our will to Him?
• Will we seek His reign and His control in our lives instead of exalting ourselves?

I pray that we will.

Lord, please help us to stop willingly walking in the dark in our daily lives.  Help us to turn on the light of Your Word and Your will in our lives instead of thinking we know how to live right without Your help.  Help us to seek your help with the everyday problems, so You can shed Your light on exactly what Your way is for us in each and every situation.  We ask You for Your wisdom, and we surrender to You as Lord.  May Your reign come and Your will be done in our daily lives as it is in Heaven.  In Jesus’ name we pray.

Amen

Do you have any stories of mistakes you’ve made in the dark that you’d like to share?  Please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.  I’d love to  hear from you!  🙂

God bless you and yours!

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