She Shoots...She Misses...Again.

My wife threw a Q-tip at the garbage can in our bathroom this morning as I was on my way out. The garbage can is small and it is on the other side of the toilet (if you're trying to get a mental picture of our bathroom).

She missed. I saw it. 

Well, let me be more specific: the trash can was so full that the Q-tip simply bounced off of the existing trash and onto the floor.

She acted like this was a surprise and said something like, "Man, I thought I made that shot". Then she shrugged her shoulders and walked away, leaving the Q-tip on the floor. I thought nothing of it at the time.

That is, until she asked me to empty the trash in the bathroom before I left for work. You see, she is very pregnant and can't really lift the trash, so I try to take it out on Mondays and Thursdays (because I'm incredibly strong...and not pregnant).

Anyway, as I lifted the trash can, I saw approximately 20 Q-tips on the floor (this is not an exaggeration, by the way).

Now, let me make something clear: I use Q-tips as well, but I'm pretty OCD about them and I PLACE them into the trash can when I'm finished with them (they were good enough to go into the deepest caverns of my ear and dig out my nasty wax...the least I can do is give them a proper burial). My wife, evidentally, has simply been chunking them in the general vicinity of the trash can and then shrugging her shoulders and walking off as they tumble to the floor in disgrace.

Do you know WHY she might be doing this? I believe that I do. It's because she knows that I'm the one (9 times out of 10, at least) who will be emptying that trash can.

So I called her on it this morning. Why? Because I like to start my day with a good ol' fashioned fight with my wife. I mean, who doesn't? It makes the rest of the day so much better.

So I took the trash into the kitchen - where she was sitting at the kitchen table - and told her how many Q-tips I had found on the floor.

I at least expected her to be ashamed.

She showed no remorse.

She was completely unaffected by the high Q-tip count (and presumably has no problem with 40 small deposits of ear wax on our bathroom floor either).

In fact, she began to heap on the sarcasm. She raised her eyebrows, nodded her head, and said something along the lines of:

"Really? 20? You counted them? Good for you. You can count to 20. Gold star for Jeremy for knowing how to count."

So I took a deep breath, nodded, took out the trash, ate my Nutri-Grain bar, kissed her on the cheek, told her I loved her, and went to work...but not before telling her that she had most likely inspired today's blog post. She didn't seem to care about that either.

What is the point of this story? Well, first of all, it reveals a side of my wife that few get to see, that I think they should see (the Q-tip-chuckin', shoulder-shruggin', sarcasm-heapin', gold star-promisin' side of her).

Secondly, though, it brings up a good point about sin.

Sometimes, we mess up, don't we? We try to do the right thing and we just don't, for whatever reason. Or we don't do something we should have done. We miss the mark. All of us. All the time.

I believe that God can handle that. He knows that we will do that. He will forgive us of those sins if we will admit them and do our best to turn from them (I John 1:5-10).

Then there's the other kind of sin. The "20 Q-tips on the floor & don't care about it" kind of sinning. We can get into the habit or practice of sinning, can't we? We miss the mark, we know we missed the mark, and we plan on continuing to miss the mark. Why? I'm not sure, but maybe because we mistakenly think that "God will clean that up".

The Bible says that he won't. Read I John 3:4-10, Hebrews 10:26-27, and Romans 6:1-2 (among others).

We need to be more careful about habitual sin, don't we? God has told us plainly what this kind of sin does to our relationship with Him. It separates us from Him. I don't think that any of us want that.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, though: I will forgive my wife for chunking 20 Q-tips onto the floor, because I love her...

...after I get my gold star.