A Basket Of Apples & Lessons Learned
“…Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” I Corinthians 5:6
Reading the above verse this morning reminded me of a recent kitchen incident. I had purchased a bag of apples but because they were not as crunchy, sweet, and juicy as the ones I had been buying, they were not being eaten. Hmmm…
In the midst of all the Christmas preparations, I noticed that untouched basket of apples and thought, “I’m going to have to pull out that fresh apple cake recipe so those apples don’t go to waste…” However, the chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, peanut butter, and no-bake cookies as well as the mounds bar brownies and pumpkin bread took precedence over that fresh apple cake. A few days later – amid more busyness – I noticed a dark spot on one of the apples. “I am REALLY going to have to find that recipe”, I thought.
A couple of days later, while cleaning in the kitchen with the girls, I thought – “OK, I’m going to take the time to make that fresh apple cake today. I’m actually looking forward to it…I haven’t made it in a good while and it is a YUMMMY cake!” My thoughts were interrupted by, “What do you want me to do with these?”
Waaaaahhhh! That’s pretty much how I felt as I looked at that basket of rotten apples. Not only was I upset with myself, but I was also SURPRISED at how quickly that one apple with the one dark spot had affected many of the other apples!
Busy or not, my procrastination had led to a dark spot in one of those apples. Then, my negligence to remove that one apple affected the other apples. Not only that, my procrastination and negligence had deprived my family of a yummy, fresh apple cake!
There are several truths we can learn from my kitchen incident. First of all, how careful we need to be to not allow sin….”dark spots”…to linger in our hearts. Dark spots will not only spread in our own lives, but they will eventually affect those around us….even those that we would not ever dream of intentionally harming. Are there “dark spots” coming to your mind right now? Get rid of them NOW before they completely infect your life as well as the lives of your loved ones. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9
Secondly, if we continually ignore the Holy Spirit’s warnings and refuse to let go of those “dark spots”, God just may let us have our way. Sadly, it often takes our lives ending up in a “basket of rotten apples” mess before we finally wave the white flag of surrender to our will and ways. Is that one dark spot really worth it?
And then, there are circumstances where we may be totally unaware of “dark spots” in our lives. There may be possessions or even people that, if left in our lives, would create a rotten mess in a hurry. How thankful we must be to our All-Knowing Heavenly Father Who sees that one dark spot that we can’t see and reaches down, picks up that apple, and removes it from our lives. How careful we must be that we not fret or even complain when God takes something from us. Many times, when God removes something, there is something farrrr better in our future. You know – like that fresh apple cake! 🙂 Let’s not deprive ourselves of God’s blessings by holding onto an apple that’s beginning to rot.
If we are truly sincere in our walk with the Lord, there will be times when we have to pick up an apple and give it a toss before it affects the rest of the bunch. But then, there will be times that the Lord must reach down and do the tossing for us. Remember, He sees what we can’t see. He loves us. We can trust Him! Aren’t you glad?