Good day dear friends, You all know how I desire to cultivate an attitude of gratitude but today I'm struggling a bit~you see I went downstairs today to check our "carpenter ant" problem and found, much to my dismay, that we had more outside and inside this morning. We've dealt with this problem, on a smaller scale, since last spring and I thought I had eradicated them until a few weeks ago. Now, almost daily, I'm spraying pest spray everywhere I've seen them and into one wall as well. If they were just living in the grass, I wouldn't worry but because they can infest the walls of your home I get very concerned, especially when I see the females with wings around too.
On pondering this ongoing problem and not being able to totally get rid of them(without bringing in an expensive pest control company)it made me think of a parallel in the spiritual realm. While we read so much in the Word about how hard working ants are, my thoughts went a total different direction. Sin has a way of creeping into our lives, our hearts, our minds and our spirits often times unnoticed, just like the original carpenter ant problem began. It is easy for us to become aware of large sins but often we just cover up the small ones or use a temporary fix without really getting rid of the root cause. If we are truly honest with our Lord on a daily basis He should be pulling those pests out of us, sometimes daily or minute by minute. I have found that with our ant problem I now need to bring in the "heavy duty pesticide" to rid the area, sometimes on a daily basis and sometimes that just doesn't work either. In today's world, in today's church and christian community, there are easy fixes out there for us to use-self help books, tapes, support groups etc. when what we really need to do is to go to our Maker and ask Him to rid us of anything not pleasing in His sight. This morning I had to go before the Throne and admit my own frustrations over getting rid of these pests and ask my Jesus to cleanse me of any chronic issues in my life that He determines are pests, before they multiply.
Won't you join me in forsaking all that grieves His heart?

Humbly yours, Noreen