Band Aids and Big Toes

I have a Band-Aid on my big toe. I cut it on a piece of glass in the kitchen floor from one of my many mishaps. I was thinking this morning about how we sometimes just slap a Band-Aid on things and expect that to automatically fix it good as new. Like when you say, "I'm sorry," but you don't really mean it. You just want to end the argument. Or you don't want to admit that what you said or did was that a bad. But you know what? If you don't doctor that wound, take the time to baby it a bit and keep it clean, what does it do? It gets infected. It might even fester. Ewww. It might even have to be -- gulp -- amputated like my little Maggie's toe. Sometimes even with all you do, the damage is irreversible.

It's so important to be mindful of the words we choose. In the blink of an eye we can let things slip out that we can't take back. We can try to make amends, but the memory we've impressed will always be there. I'm guilty. I've said my share of ugly things. Why is it that we seem to feel so comfortable in saying exactly what we think especially with our closest loved ones? Shouldn't we be protecting them and nurturing them? Shouldn't we esteem our spouses as parts of ourselves and realize we are only doing harm to ourselves? I'm preaching to myself here. And no, the hubby and I haven't had a knock-down-drag-out today. It's just something that's on my mind.

Marriage is WORK. (That's for the benefit of all you single guys and gals out there.) And as I've stated before, I've grown lazy in a lot of areas of my life. And why is it when we do that, when we grow a little bit apathetic and cold that we look for someone else to blame? Truth is, my husband has his faults. All husbands do. What's even more shocking is that we wives have even more--more than the gray hairs we coat with Clairol to cover them up. But does Clairol fix them? No, it HIDES them. Just like this beige piece of stretchy elastic on my toe. I can't see the wound. But it's there. Covering it up doesn't make it go away any faster. It just keeps you from seeing it.

It's only when we allow the Holy Spirit to intervene that the healing begins to occur. Sometimes it cuts deep to the heart of the matter. Sometimes it is very, very painful to get out all that festering sin. We don't want to admit that we caused a wound -- or maybe that we received a wound at someone else's hand that we can't forgive. We have to deal with these things. Slapping a Band-Aid over it doesn't cut it.

I'm convicted today -- convicted by a Band-Aid on a big toe. Doesn't God use some of the oddest things, some of the simplest things to teach us?