I walked in my house today after being gone all morning and it felt like the stink monster slapped me across the face! Don’t act like it’s never happened to you, either. Maybe you left a diaper or two in the trash without a lid. Or maybe you left the garbage in the can after you emptied the leftovers out of the fridge. Or, in my case, you just got too wrapped up in outside chores and left dishes in the sink overnight that didn’t get rinsed. No matter what the culprit, when the smell gets that bad, somebody’s got to have some relief!

As I was unloading and reloading he dishwasher, a thought occurred to me. Why is it that we rarely address the junk in our life until the stink stinks us out? If I had taken five minutes yesterday and cleaned stuff up, I would not have had a stink problem; but instead, I knowingly let it sit until something HAD to be done. Why is it that when we worry, get angry, become bitter, or live selfishly that we excuse it away until we HAVE TIME to deal with it? Usually by that point the stink is so bad in our lives that other stuff is starting to smell as well. Why don’t we just bring ourselves to God DAILY and ask him to show us the stink before we actually smell it?

Oh God, “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me”. Let this be my prayer daily before the stink stinks me out.