Stinky Lady Bugs and Sin

I have declared an all points bulletin on the Asian beetles in our home. I still call them lady bugs because they are the one and the same in my book. My mother-in-law is not real wild about this obsessive compulsive eradication of these pests because I am using her vacuum cleaner to rid the world, or at least our home, of these flying bugs. Once a few lady bugs are sucked into the vacuum bag, the next time you use the vacuum cleaner a terrible smell is emitted. The only thing worse is the smell they leave on your fingers and hands when you manually pick up the lady bugs.

Psychologists probably have a name for this unstoppable habit I have. When I snatch lady bugs with my bare hands, I must sniff my palm or my digits to see if they smell. I know they are going to smell horrible. I detest the smell, yet every time I just have to smell them.

What is it that makes us do what we do not want to do?

The apostle Paul wrote about the pull to do wrong things instead of right things in his life before he allowed God to lead his life.

Romans 7:19-20
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Sounds like my smelling dilemma and when I do other stupid things.

Paul hates smelling the stink of sin on his hands and cries out for a rescuer. His rescuer is Jesus!

Romans 7:24-25
  What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The next time you and I want to do something we know we will regret, remember the stinky smell of lady bugs and let Jesus rescue us before we smell our life up.

---