“Mama, come over here,” my oldest beckoned from the playground.

“I’m in the middle of something, what do you need?” I yelled across the yard.

“You’ve gotta’ come over here and touch this mud. It feels so good.”

“Mud? Seriously. I have touched mud my whole life, Carter. I think I’m caught up, but you enjoy it for me, okay?”

“But, Mama, you haven’t touched THIS mud before. It’s different,” he persuasively continued.

Needless to say, I managed to avoid the mud, but I stood on the porch a bit bewildered. Why, after a hot summer, would they choose one of the coolest afternoons we’d had in months to play in wet, yucky mud?

My boys playing in that nasty mud made me think about the things I choose to wallow in, though. There’s something about mud that draws us to get down in it and roll around, even when we know it’s not what’s best. My boys knew I wasn’t going to let them in the house without first getting hosed off in the yard with the cold water, yet, they still chose the mud. We know the consequences of getting back into our own muddy situations and attitudes, yet we still choose to wallow.

Why do we do it? Maybe it’s comfortable. Convenient. Familiar. Normal. And maybe it might even be fun. But wallowing in the mud isn’t going to end so well. The hose-down in the backyard produced screams and yells, mud dripped into eyes, shoes and clothes had to be removed on the porch. Our mud might look a little different, but the hose-down is the same, often resulting in consequences like self-doubt, insecurity, bitterness, unforgiveness, lack of self-control, regret, and guilt.

Before we fall back into the same mud pit, think about what it is that is drawing us to the mud, consider the possible consequences, and let’s choose not to get hosed down by the cold water anymore.