If we are Facebook friends, you’ve very likely seen videos of my girls, especially Maisy, creating havoc with my bedding. It’s an almost daily occurrence and, despite my attempts to intervene before the destruction reaches full force, it just keeps happening.

I don’t know if other bloggers talk a lot about how they arrive at their topics, but I believe sometimes the back story is almost as interesting, or more so, than the actual topic.

So, I will occasionally choose to share all the events and rambling thoughts that lead up to the actual writing of the post, and hope there’s still some room for an actual point to be made!

I’ve bragged often about God’s faithfulness in giving me a topic every single week for over seven years.  I’ve also admitted the times I’ve wished for something lighter after weeks of heavier themes.  

This week was no exception.  It’s now Sunday night, and I’ve got nothing.

As I walked into my bedroom earlier this evening, surprise(!), Maisy had clearly been in here rooting around and burrowing under the covers, pillows likely flying around.  As I surveyed the “damage,” I felt a nudge from God to snap a quick picture of the crime scene.

Before I could take it, both girls came charging into the room, jumping up on the bed and confidently posing as if this were a planned photo shoot. How could I not snap it?!

Great!  Now it seemed I had a photo for the post, but how in the world was I going to get a topic out of this?

A few minutes later, I sat down at my desk and asked God to please let this be one of those posts that didn’t require me to bare my shortcomings to the cyberworld! For the not-first time on this seven-year journey, I put my head down on my desk and asked God to divinely and clearly give me an idea.  Something “spiritual” from this crazy “bedding bedlam.”

The idea that landed in my thoughts within a few minutes made me smile.  It’s not incredibly deep.  It won’t linger for days or stir up repentance.  But I do hope it makes you smile, too.

Here’s your thought for the week:

I’m going to take a bit of a leap and equate the girls’ destruction of my nicely made bed to … sin.  (Just go with me here!) When someone discovers and points out our sin, or God’s Spirit convicts us of that sin, what should our response be?

Should we hide under the covers?  Lurk in the background, hoping no one knows we were the perpetrators? Pretend we didn’t do it?

Of course not.  Like my confident little troublemakers, we own it!  God knows what we’ve done.  He also knows the heart behind it.  So don’t try to hide from that reality – or from him. 

Remember how Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the Garden of Eden after they had both eaten the forbidden fruit?  How did that work out for them? Not so well as God knew exactly what had happened, as he always does.

Despite the countless times that Maisy and Mimi have created this chaos, I still smile, I still forgive, and I still (feebly) try to correct this behavior.

Our job is simply to acknowledge our sin and ask for his forgiveness. He never tires of offering it.  His desire is to correct and shape our actions and thoughts so we can live in deeper communion with Him.

That was a long, winding road getting to the lesson, wasn’t it? Sometimes that’s just how the story unfolds.

I hope this post brought a smile to your heart, as you picture my two crazy girls.   And more importantly, I hope it reminded you that when we come boldly to God in repentance, he always meets us with loving forgiveness.

I acknowledged my sin to you,

and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Psalm 32:5