Monday, August 19, 2013

Roots

Today's journey begins in a simple to-do list.
  • Clean fish tank.
  • Make beds, and tidy rooms.
  • Choose 7 things to get rid of- Money Saving Mom Challenge.
  • Change linens.
  • Water plants.
Not exactly exciting, eh?

Well, let me give you a little background on why sharing my crazy to do list. We have a 20 gallon aquarium...  what would have been our only pet if we had not succumbed to Shelby's cuteness.




Lately,  our water has been this yucky, gross looking brown. We thought it was just a by-product of this piece of wood we bought for our clown pleco. More frequent partial water changes were our course of action, and hopefully, it would stop staining our water. But then, our plants started dying. A few fish died. And our water changes, weren't helping. Insert frowny face.

FINALLY, we bought a water test kit. And lo and behold, our water wasn't safe. High nitrates, high ph, high alkalinity. In aquarium terms, not good. We went to our beloved Google, and found out the easy way to fix nitrates was to do a good thorough cleaning. So today, we embarked on what we thought would be an easy peasy lemon squeezy cleaning of an aquarium. After all, I clean it out once a month, right?

Wrong. So dreadfully wrong. We took out our decorations, and plants. Just doing something that simple stirred up by far the worst water I've ever seen. Pond water essentially. We made the executive decision to evacuate the fish, and we felt awful. I wish I had taken a picture to share with you, but I was just horrified that this is what we were letting our little fishy babies breathe in everyday. No wonder they weren't doing so hot!




As I scrubbed gravel, and sifted, and scrubbed some more I thought, this is us. This is me. We think we're okay. We should be okay. We do our monthly maintenance, make sure our homes and selves are neat in order, but what about deeper? The stuff beneath our gravel?

It makes me squirm to write this, but what if, what if our hearts aren't clean at all? They're not focused on God. We breathe in pollution everyday, and we never realize just how much it takes a toll on us until it's too late.

"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." - John 15:4-5

Instead of growing our roots, in crud and excess junk, grow them in the LORD. Make no mistake, we all grow roots, wherever we are, whatever walk of life we're in, we become rooted. It's in our nature, and thus stems phrases like "old habits die hard".

Let us make habits today to grow deeper in Christ. Seek him, meditate on him, breathe Him in.


Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. Psalms 1:1-3
 
 
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” John 4:13-15
May you be thirsty today, and drink deeply from the Living Water and makes new.

1 comment:

  1. I thoroughly enjoyed this post!!! It made me think deeper about myself. Thank you, Lilli!!

    ReplyDelete

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