The other day as I tended to our four-year old son, our two year-old daughter observed her baby sister’s diaper needed changed. She then proceeded to change it to the best of her abilities. What does that look like? Well, in the words of her older brothers, “There is poop all over your bed! Eww! Ahhh!”
Sure enough, there was poop all over our bed, the bottom half of the baby, and all over my big helper, who now was hiding under a pillow. Oh yes, these are the Hallmark moments. It all got cleaned up. (Thank God for washing machines.) After, I told our two year-old, “That’s not your job. I will change that.”
I was grateful for such a vivid illustration of this simple truth: Sometimes, we think we are helping to clean someone up, but in reality we are only making a bigger mess. We see a stinky situation and think; “I will change that!” We are, after all, big helpers and experts in our own right. We then proceed to say what we think we should say or do what we think we should do, all to our best abilities, only to find the situation even worse than it was before we got involved. I know because I have done it more than once and sadly, I had no big pillow to hide under when it was all said and done.
The best way to help change a stinky situation is to ask God, the master cleaner-upper, to guide you. Sure, you can do all things through Christ (Phil. 4:13), but the question is, “What should you do?” You may find that He says to you, “That’s not your job. I will change that.” Help as He leads you to help. That is what matters most.
Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the LORD will do before your eyes.
1 Samuel 12:16 (NLT)
