Got ticks?

We recently found a tick on my dog, the first tick I've ever had to deal with.  Needless to say, it was an activity I'd rather not have to endure again!  Ticks are ugly little creatures who's only job in life is to hitch a ride on an animal and suck the animal's blood.  If a tick is left alone, it will make the animal very sick.  As gross as that sounds, I can't help but wonder if we have ticks in our lives, sucking us dry.

No one actually knows the exact date and time the tick jumps on it's prey and burrows it's self into the skin of the animal.  Sin can be compared to a tick because it becomes  part of us through something that seems harmless, then before we know it, sin has it's nasty little head stuck in our lives, sucking us dry of our spiritual food.  Much like trying to get the tick off of our poor dog, sin takes hold of our lives and it becomes almost impossible to get it out.

Eventually we get tired of tugging and pulling to get sin out of our lives so we just accept the fact sin is there to stay and we leave it alone.  What we don't realize is sin is doing much more harm then depleting us of our joy and spiritual food, it is making us very sick.  We no longer have our daily devotions, we no longer talk to God, then we no longer attend church.  If this is allowed to continue, we will become spiritually dead.

If we can be harmed by the tick called sin, how much more damage do you think it does to our children?  Once sin is allowed to creep it's way into the lives of our children, it takes hold and has years to suck their lives dry.  Sin hitches it's way into our lives from things that seem harmless such as watching shows on TV that aren't really bad but they aren't really good either.  Perhaps it's their music, they might not be listening to heavy metal, but what they are listening to is filled with curse words and disrespect to women.

Much like our animals, there are items we can use to keep the ticks off of us and our children.  Daily devotions and prayer is a good start.  I am a firm believer it is never too early to start devotions with your children.  No matter how busy life became, I always had devotions with my children because I wanted them to learn the importance of spending time with God at an early age.

Let's determine to saturate our lives and teach our children how to saturate their lives with God's Word so that sin cannot take hold of us and deplete us of our joy.