On knowing the iron is hot…and burning yourself, anyways.

I confess:  I do not iron.  I wash, fold and hang laundry, but I don’t iron it.  After nearly 20 years of marriage, we have long since decided that ironing should not be under my care.  Our clothing is the happier (and longer lasting) for it.   I like to say I have “wrinkling skills”.  This puts my ironing deficit into a much more positive light.  No matter how careful I am, when I press a hot iron to fabric, it ends up more wrinkled than it had been.  If seersucker ever comes back in style, then I’ll be in charge of ironing, until then?  Not so much.  Hence the fact: I do not iron.

Which makes even more confusing, the fact that I am currently nursing nasty a second degree iron burn on my left middle finger.   I do not iron, so I should be safe from ironing accidents, shouldn’t I? 

My husband and I were in the bathroom, talking and getting ready for a day out.  He ironed his shirt, put the iron on the counter, next to the sink,  then went into the shower.  In some momentary disconnect between brain and body, I walked over to the counter, looked at the iron, (which I’d just watched him use) and promptly tried to move it with the back of my hand, so I’d have room to brush my teeth.   The electric shock of pain immediately connected my brain with my body once again.  I jerked my hand back, knocking the iron to the floor, I immediately stuck my hand under the faucet and turned on the water.  “OOOOOOWWWWW!”

I KNEW the iron was hot.  I had just watched my darling man iron his shirt.   I touched it anyway.  I got burned, and will quite probably, have a scar to show for it.  That is what happens when people touch hot things.  It’s a lesson we (usually) learn early on.  “Don’t touch that! It’s HOT!” Or do we?  If we’re honest, we’ll admit, that when the waitress places a hot dish in front of most of us, cautioning us that it is hot… the first thing we do, is reach out our hand, and touch it.  We then pretend it wasn’t “that hot”.  It seems to be human nature. 

There are things that we know are bad for us, but we do them anyway.  Like touching a hot iron, they can scar us. The burn on my finger, isn’t the only scar I have from doing things I know I shouldn’t have.  I have financial scars from purchases that I shouldn’t have made. I have “hip shaped” scars from cookies I should not have eaten. I have relational scars from battles I started, but never should have been in.  I have lots of scars from lots of irons, all of which, I knew, were hot. 

We all have hot irons in our life.  They sit there on the counter, scorching hot and ready to burn us if we touch them.  Today, when you see that iron, what will you do? 

Genesis 4:7 NIV
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.

1 John 5:13-20 NIV
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrong doing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Dear Lord- I pray that you’d fill us each with your Spirit, that in your power we would not sin. I pray that you’d forgive my sins, all the ways that I have touched hot irons… thing I knew I should not have done, I love you lord and am so thankful for your healing balm of forgiveness- amen

Enjoyed the Post? Share...

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Linkedin

email

Digg

Reddit

• ← The Price of Sin
• Stay Alert! →