next time I'm going to Panera Bread

Last night I went to a Pampered Chef party in hopes of improving my cooking skills & kitchen expertise. Later that night I burnt a bagel in the toaster. So much for a quick fix. Let me explain how I managed to torch a bagel: the first time I "toasted" it, the bagel was only somewhat warm, not even remotely tan. So I put it in a second time.

That's when the smoke alarms went off.

I kid you not. I have the most sensitve smoke alarms known to man. You know, like some people say they have sensitive teeth or sensitive skin. The installed said above item can pick up the smell of smoke as soon as I look at my oven. My excuse for not cooking is the prep time: turn off the breaker box to the smoke alarms, turn on over head ceiling fans, turn on exhaust fan on stove, move portable fan to kitchen to whisk away anything that might set off my arch nemesis. It's really quite annoying. I'm sure my neighbors loved hearing the high pitched screeching that went off at 11pm last night, all because I wanted a nicely browned bagel.

But it made me think: what if I monitored the junk and sin in my life the way my smoke alarms monitor my cooking escapades? Instead of letting the questionable movies or prideful thoughts or the gossip tidbits collect in my system, what if big flashing lights and loud sirens went off everytime I got remotely close to letting something slip past my 'acceptable' filter? What extreme measures would I take to keep the sin so far away that the alarm doesn't even have a chance at going off? And what is the standard for my 'acceptable' filter anyway? Do I need to update my filter?

Too often I let myself be saturated with the things of this world (Galatians 5:19-21) and my spiritual 'smoke' alarm does not even register!

Although we live in this fallen world, Christ calls us to be set apart from it. Different. Unique. Pure. Untainted. Like Christ. An impossible task to do on my own, but thankfully not impossible for the One who created me. I am convninced that God is faithful (Philippians 1:6), not because of anything I have done, but because of His great love for me. I am glad He accepts me as I am, but that He loves me too much to leave me as I am (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).