Getting Poison Ivy

So, last Saturday, Beth and I decide we needed to clean up our backyard. The kids had been playing and messing it up, the grass and weeds were getting high, so we decided we would take care of it. We started out by picking all the junk up and then decided to take care of the weeds. There are several areas in our yard that weren't supposed to have weeds, and so we began pulling them up. We got to this one area that had some vines and bigger weeds, and we were just yanking them out of the way. Well, we didn't really think what we were pulling was poison ivy or anything (I can never remember 5 or 3 leaves), so we just went about our business. For Beth this wasn't a big deal, because she had gloves on. Me being me didn't. So about Sunday afternoon, I started getting little bumps on my arm, then by Monday I could really tell that something was bothering me. On Tuesday morning it had gotten worse and just spread...

On Tuesday night, I had a meeting at which there were two doctors. I asked one if she knew what poison ivy looked like, she said yep. I showed her my arm and said, "is that poison ivy" and she said, "yep, i will call you in something". Argh. I couldn't believe it. So know I have two cremes that I am lathering all of my arms to keep this deal from spreading and driving me crazy by itching. I hate poison ivy, I haven't had it since I was a kid...

Hopefully, this will go away by this weekend. I am doing my best not to scratch and cause it to spread. i have been wearing some under armor I have so that I am not sweating in long sleeves. Right now it is just contained in my arms and hopefully will stay there.

But today I was thinking about this and how this story is similar to the fall with Adam and Eve. They were told not to eat of the fruit, but "touched" the plant anyways. Their sin spread into mankind and grew more and more each day. We all sin, and our sin is like poison ivy. The more we scratch and itch at it with our own strength is like trying to wait for the poison ivy to stop itching on its own without medication. But once we allow God to "heal" us, then we begin to get better. Not always over night but in the end. I know that is a rough analogy but it still works. We really need to be careful of the things we get into because we don't always know where that is going to take us or what might happen to us. If we just trust that God will lead and guide us, He will keep us away from the poison ivy that might slow us down...