My daughter has entered a new phase. She no longer wants to wear a diaper, however, she doesn’t quite grasp the concept of potty training so we continue to put them on her.

Recently my wife opened the door to Elli’s bedroom to wake her up from her nap and smelled a foul odor: poop. As she surveyed the room she found that poop had been smeared all over the room by poopy wipes. As she gasped in horror she looked over and found our little angel asleep with her no longer diapered poopy-bottom sticking up in the air.

Elli had messed her diaper and decided that although she’s not quite two years old she is mature enough to take her diaper off and try to clean herself with wipes before going back to sleep. The result was less than stellar. Like any good supportive husband I sat on the phone laughing hysterically as my wife told me the story. Her response was, “Why does everyone think this is so funny?”

Although this will eventually be a great story we’ll tell our future son-in-law it got me thinking about something right now. How often do we try to clean up after our own messes instead of going to our heavenly father and letting him clean it up? We see Adam and Eve covering themselves with leaves, Moses burying the Egyptian and fleeing to Midian, Jacob trying to negotiate himself into blessing, Achan trying to hide in the crowd etc…

1 Corinthians 6:11 tells us, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” How many times have we tried to deal with sin by our own methods? Turning over a new leaf, vowing never to do something again, or just burying the conviction deep inside of us until we grow numb to it? The reality is that when we do these things we end up just like my daughter: fast asleep with our poop smeared bottoms waving in the air for all to see.

You’re going to mess up; it’s going to happen. But instead of wiping yourself down and just getting it all over the place go to the one who is capable of washing you clean. He’ll restore you better than new and you’ll sleep like a baby—who’s not covered in poop!