THE 10 MINUTE ENCOURAGER
by
Elizabeth Baker

Be Encouraged Today! When we confess God not only cleanses us from the sin we see, but the ones we don’t see as well!

A Sliver of Guilt

A scream from the back yard sent Chelsea racing out the door to find her five-year-old daughter sitting on the ground by the old mulberry tree. Cora was holding her bloody toe with both hands, her mouth wide open in an ear-splitting wail.

“What happened?” demanded Chelsea reaching for her child. “Let me see.”

“No! Don’t touch it!’ Cora pulled away protecting her toe. ‘You’ll hurt it more!”

Thirteen-year-old Brittney slammed the backdoor. “What is going on? Is Cora hurt bad?” She and her mother had been deep in serious conversation when her little sister’s cry ripped into the afternoon quiet.

Chelsea sighed. She and Mike intentionally spaced their children far apart reasoning that the distance would allow maximum attention to be given to each during their formative years, but lately she was doubting the wisdom of that move. “Formative years” never seemed to end and Chelsea was constantly being caught between the conflicting needs of her children just as though they were both in diapers.

She sat on the ground pulling Cora onto her lap and prying small fingers loose from the bleeding toe. “Let me see, so I can help.” She gently pleaded with the irrational child who slowly allowed the wound to be exposed. A half inch of grey wood was showing through light skin with blood oozing from the spot where the wood entered the flesh.

“I made me a ladder to climb the tree and it bit me!” wailed Cora.

“Is it okay?” Brittney interrupted. “Want me to call the doctor or Dad or something?”

Chelsea recognized the weathered board as a relic from the garage. Cora had evidently placed it at an angle against the tree with the idea of reaching the lower branches. Carrying on two conversations at once, she responded first to Cora. “The ladder didn’t bite you,” her mother explained, “I’ll bet your foot slipped and a little sharp piece of wood came off and got stuck under your skin.” Then to Brittney she continued. “It is not too bad, but I’ll have to pull out the splinter and treat the cut place.”

“No! It will hurt!” Cora screamed more loudly that before.

“We’ve got to fix it, Cora, or it may get infected. I’ll be gentle.”

“Want me to call Dad?”

“I don’t think you need to call Dad, Britney, but could you run to the bathroom and get me the first aid kit?”

She barely had time to quiet Cora before Brittney returned and squatted down beside her mother, “Here’s the stuff you wanted.”

Brittney watched as her mom gently coaxed Cora into allowing the tweezers close to the wound. She wasn’t screaming now, and Brittney wanted desperately to continue the conversation that her little sister’s wail had so rudely interrupted. “Mom, I still don’t understand. It’s like I’m OK, but then something happens—well, even if nothing happens—then I’m not OK. If I’ve already confessed, then why am I not OK all the time?”

Chelsea’s sigh was audible as she tried to decipher Brittney’s language that was sounding more like verbal code all the time. She had one child dealing with boo-boos and another dealing with theology. Maybe having two kids closer in age would be better. “Lord, let me not fail on either end of this stretch!” she prayed silently.

Acknowledging Brittney’s question with a nod, she spoke to Cora. “Just a minute more, baby. That splinter has got to come out.”(renewed wails and tears) “Hang on,” she advised then yanked the tweezers away from the flesh pulling the splinter out with a fresh stream of blood. The tears turned to screams as she alternately soothed Cora and explained theology to Brittney. “Honey, the Bible says that Christians are to live by faith. I think you are struggling because your emotions are in the lead. Confession is not about how you feel, it is about who Jesus is.”

“But you’ve told me since I was Cora’s age that when I did something bad and felt awful on the inside, it was because Jesus wanted me to confess the sin. You said if I told the truth and confessed than the bad feelings would go away. And, they always used to, but now sometimes they don’t.”

“Could you hand me that cotton ball and peroxide bottle?”

“No!” Cora pleaded. “Not that stinky stuff. It’ll burn!”

Ignoring her younger child for the moment, Chelsea answered the older one as she unscrewed the top from the peroxide. “Brittney, change is part of life. You not only change physically and emotionally but spiritually as well. Experiences don’t always stay the same as they did when you were a child.” She turned her attention back to Cora and switched the subject hardly pausing long enough to draw a breath. “Baby, we got the splinter out, but that is not the only problem. There may be germs deep inside. They could make you sick if we don’t put medicine on them.”

“I don’t see no germs!” Cora protested and tried to push her mothers hand away.

“You may not see them, but they are there just the same.” Her mother held the cotton ball close by the wound and dripped peroxide over the cut. The bubbles brought another round of tears from Cora.

“But, if Jesus really forgave me and I’m saved and all that, why do I sometimes feel guilty even though I can’t figure out what I did that was bad?”

“Brittney, if you have honestly searched your heart and the Holy Spirit does not reveal any specific sin that you need to confess or any certain action you need to take, then you need to rest by faith on the fact that you are accepted by God.” She screwed the top back on the peroxide bottle. “Could you open that Band Aid for me?”

“I don’t want the plain one,” said Cora suddenly interested in the first aid box. “I want the one with Flintstone on it.”

“I don’t think there is one,” said Brittney shaking the half empty box. Then, looking up at her mother she asked with a tentative voice. “But, what if I am just too dumb to know what needs to be confessed?”

“Oh, Honey,” said Chelsea as she reached over her youngest daughter’s head to hug the older child. “God is bigger than your guilty conscience and well able to communicate to you anything that you really need to know.”

“In the meantime,” she continued as she took the box from Brittney’s hands fishing through the remaining choices, “You need to remember the promise in I John 1:9.” She turned back to Cora. “There are no more pictures of Flintstone. Will Bam-Bam do?” The smile that lit up the little girl’s face assured her that this particular crisis was almost at an end. She turned her attention back to theology. “Brittney, when we do one thing, God has promised to do two.”

Cora got up off her mother’s lap and whet back to her play while the older girl helped her mom put the first aid kit back in order. It was only then that Chelsea realized the two simultaneous conversations she had been juggling the past few minutes carried some remarkable similarities.

“You know, Brit, your sister didn’t have one problem, she had two. The first problem was the splinter that she could see, but a second and very real problem were the germs she could not see. I knew about both problems and had solutions for both, but I don’t think Cora fully understood that.”

“When it comes to confession, we often have more than one problem. There are the sins that we recognize and know about, but there also other sins of which we are not even aware. The Bible says that when we confess the sins we know, Jesus takes care of those. But, He also does more. He moves beyond those things we know and ‘cleanses us from all unrighteousness.’”

“But sometimes I feel…” Brittney let the sentence fade as her mother cocked an eyebrow and smiled.

“Feel?” Chelsea asked rhetorically. “Honey, never forget that feelings come and go. It is only the Lord and His promises that stand sure. When your feelings don’t line up with His promises, move by faith. If you have confessed what you know, then believe that what He said is true and that your feelings are not. He has not only forgiven what you confessed, He dug even deeper and cleansed even the things that you can’t see. If you keep believing, your feelings will soon yield to the truth.”

Brittney watched her little sister as she investigated a worm on a leaf. “I guess you could say that it’s my job to pull out the splinters of guilt, and then I just have to trust Him to peroxide the gunk I can’t see.”

“You know,” her mother put her arm around her shoulder as the walked toward the house. “For a teenager, you’re pretty smart.”

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins AND to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.

I John 1:9 NKJ

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For information about Elizabeth's books and to read other stories visit her at: www.elizabethbakerbooks.com