It’s In The Walls I Tell you. In the Walls

Sometimes I can be so blond.

Color me surprised! When we first moved to California, I found myself sharing our home with unwanted critters. I moved from an extremely arid region, translation – Las Vegas, where the only small animals around our home were a few scorpions and tiny ants.

Following our unpacking and a few nights in our brand new home, I was sound asleep enjoying the cooler nights of Southern California. That’s when I heard it, a rustling noise in all places, the walls of our bedroom. EEK! I mean, I sat straight up in bed, freaked. Can I get an Amen here?

The next morning I figured we have rodents roving the interior of our abode. Thus, the Warrior Princess in me arose to do battle (queue: theme song from Rocky)

I trot down to the store, return and strategically place some not nice stuff around the garage for the brazen beaties. Okay, I felt bad about this too but it was either them or me.

That evening I slept in pure bliss, the rodents were silent, the dog was quiet and miracles of miracles my husband’s snoring only reached one decibel on the sound meter instead of two.

All was right with the world.

The week passed and I forgot about the unwanted visitors. Until…..

I stepped out into our garage. Eeeuw! What is that smell? I reason with myself, this is a brand new home. We must have a leak in the gas connection to the water heater. You know where this is going, don’t you?

I call the Gas Company. The technician comes out immediately. He steps out into the garage, sniffs once then slowly circles to face me and says flatly, “Lady, you don’t have a gas leak, you have a dead animal in here somewhere.”

Was my face red?

I discovered that morning just how effective rat poison is and how to add another embarrassing moment to my repretwa. I wonder, however, if we can see something in this story? Is it possible that we could be nibbling on a little poison ourselves?

Human poison is masked in words such as; unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness.

We chew on a little at a time. Convinced the poison is going to hurt the one in which we are harboring resentment. We chew on it and chew on it and the only one who is hurt is ….. us.

So how do we forgive those who have hurt us?

One: Relinquish our right to get even. Romans 12:19
Two: Respond to evil with good. Luke 6:27-28 This is hard medicine but it is necessary to keep resentment from growing.
Three: Repeat these steps as long as it takes. Matthew 18-21-22 until your heart and head catch up.
Four: Rescue others with the news of forgiveness. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. We hold the truth to living free.

Forgiveness releases resentment. Forgive because we are forgiven and Jesus wants us to live in peace and freedom. Colossians 3:13

Let’s make this real: Below is a luggage tag. Print it out. Write the name(s) of those you want forgive. Pray to honestly release your resentment. Or, perhaps you can’t forgive yourself for something in your past. Write your name on this tag.

This piece of luggage now belongs to Jesus. We are shipping our hurts and unforgiveness to Him. Drop your tag in the trash or your Bible. It’s now covered by Christ.

Lord, when we begin to feel those old bitter feelings well up in our chest, remind us of what we did today. We surrendered our feelings and bitterness over this person(s) to you. Don’t let us take it back. I ask in the powerful, life-changing name of Jesus.

Please visit me at…..



*inspired from the teaching of Pastor Chico Goff. Thanks Chico!

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