Are you stinky?

When we volunteer at the food pantry one of the things we do is sack produce. It varies from week to week what we'll be sacking. Sometimes we have nothing to sack because they are already in appropriate size bags where each family gets a bag. Sometimes though the produce is in large 50 lb. bags that needs to be separated. We've sacked carrots, apples, onions, oranges, pears, corn, and potatoes.


One day we were given potatoes to sack. As one of the bags was cut open I could smell the awful smell of a rotten potato. We began sacking the potatoes into other bags. The whole time I worked I kept smelling the rotten one, hiding in the bag somewhere. Finally it was found and quickly thrown out. The bad smell was still there though. Some of it's "stink" had rubbed off to the other potatoes in the sack. You'd have thought the bad tater was still there with the way that stink lingered!


Has this ever happened in your life? Have you ever realized something in your life was causing you to "stink" and you had to work to rid yourself of it? Maybe it was jealousy, lack of contentment, discouragement, or pessimism. Once you realized the problem and source of the stink, you have to work to rid your life of it. But later maybe you find some of the evidence of the original problem? Maybe the stink isn't like it once was but you smell that ugliness beginning to creep back into your life. You have to work to rid yourself of the problem once again before it becomes overpowering and out of control. If you aren't careful, your "stinkiness" will rub off on the other people in your life too.


How do you do this? How do you go about keeping the stinky things out of your life? Some ideas are to pray and study God's Word. Also, you need to surround yourself with people who themselves do not have "stinky" things in their lives. They'll eventually rub off on you and you'll smell just like them. Another thing is to keep a word of praise in your heart and on your lips. When you get rid of the stink you need to make sure you fill your heart up with good things so it won't have any room to come back.


We all need to be aware of this in our daily lives to make sure we are a pleasant aroma instead of a stink to those around us.
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"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 2:14, 15