Advice about bad smells:

First - if you smell something bad, look for the cause sooner rather than later.

Second, if you are looking for a bad smell, start with yourself before you look everywhere else in the house.

My daughter asked me to help her look for some cough drops; she has been fighting a cold. So, I began to walk around the house looking for cough drops. (It might have helped had I had my glasses on).

As I was looking for cough drops, I kept smelling this bad smell and I was thinking; “when I find these cough drops I am going to have to look for what is causing this terrible smell that seems to be everywhere that I go.” This was my first mistake. I should have looked for the bad smell immediately.

Then, I hear my daughter say, “Bye dad! Have a good day!” and the door closes. So, she must have found the cough drops and left or she forgot about the cough drops that I have been so diligently looking for and left for school. So, now it is time to look for what is causing this bad smell.

I had my suspensions, because I watched my son with the dog out the kitchen window this morning. The dog was casting about the way he does when he is looking for the right spot to lay his mines, which always takes forever when you are late or in a hurry to leave. Our little dog, Buddy, does not have a dog door so we have to take him out to use his big outdoor bathroom. Kenneth was running late – the dog was taking too long so – he chased the dog around and scooped him up and carried him back inside. My suspension was that, either Kenneth got poop on his shoes from some that had not been cleaned up and carried it into the house or that Buddy had pooped in the house after not having been able to do it outside. Neither of these explanations explained why the smell was through the whole house. Did I mention that our multi-colored shag carpet is about the color of poop?

Yeah, about this time my mind kicks into gear. I look at my feet and realize that when I was looking for cough drops, I stepped into some of Buddy’s poop and I have tracked it all over the house. You can’t spot clean poop when you can’t see where all it has gone. So, the carpet will have to be steam cleaned. Ugh!

This event made me think of several spiritual truths. When you first sin, it smells and you know that something is wrong. You start looking for answers. Your sin rubs off on other parts of your life and affects all that you do. After a while if you do not recognize the sin in your life and clean it up, then you grow used to the smell and no longer recognize it as the sin that it is. You need God to clean it up and it is not good enough to ask God to clean one little spot. You need God to clean out your whole life.

Father, I pray with the Psalmist:
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
(Psalms 139:23-24)
-Amen