How to clean up my life that looks like a fish fry?

What does a fish fry and how to clean up my life have anything to do with each other?

Answer: They both can get really messy, really fast and the consequences of a mess left unclean can have some real problems waiting for your future.

Let me explain what I mean.

Have you ever cleaned fish that needed the scales removed? What a mess that can make. Well, I did just that; I made the mess.

Father’s Day, a few years back, I decided to do a fish fry for my father-in-law and my dad. My wife hates to cook fish, and for good reason, so I decided that I would take on the challenge and cook enough fish for our entire family.

I was in heaven.

We had catfish, bluegills, Speckled Perch, red snapper, all the side fixings and of course, hush puppies.

This was all set up on the back porch with several Fry Daddy’s running at the same time, cutting, scaling, cleaning and battering fish as well as making hush puppies. I had pots, pans, spoons scattered all over the back porch. It was a hot mess.

The dads loved it. We sat around laughing and joking having a good time. Eating fried fish, hush puppies, sharing memories and making memories at the same time. It was probably one of the best Father’s Day lunches that we had experienced.

Not wanting to deal with the mess that I had made, I decided I would clean it all up tomorrow.

That was a mistake.

I’m not sure if you’ve ever left fish slime and scales out over time but apparently, that’s the stuff concrete is made out of. It took a hammer and a chisel to get those scales off the patio where I was standing.

Hushpuppy mix also doubles as brick mortar because the pots, pans, and spoons seem to be inseparable.

But I learned something very valuable that day.

Sin is like a messy fish fry.

Sin in the life of a Christian is like fish scales and hush puppy mix. If left unchecked it can harden your testimony, sticking you to things you do not want to be associated with.

There are several people in the Bible who have associated themselves with sin hoping not to be led astray.

Need examples?

Sampson who dabbled in gambling, women and the love to fight, ultimately cost him his life.

Solomon, the wisest man in history, had everything. However, he was involved with sinful women who worship idols. Wasn’t before long, Solomon turned his back on God and everything that he knew losing it all because of sin.

Adam & Eve had everything that they could possibly want or ever need in the garden, yet sin was entertained and they lost everything cursing the world around them.

8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
2nd Peter 2: 8 KJV

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
-Psalm 1: 1 KJV

Lot was a righteous man, however, he chose to associate with ungodly men. He was in contact with sin day in and day out. As time pass he allowed the people around him to fall into moral wickedness, turning them away from God as they had no use for Him.

Lot was ultimately spared by God, however, he was never prosperous, wasting the rest of his life with drunkenness and acts of terrible sin.

You need to be diligent about your mess.

Ultimately my mess took a lot of scrubbing and hard work to fix. If I had just cleaned up prior to letting it stain and harden, clean up would have been a lot easier on me.

I should have cleaned little by little while cooking, paying attention to what I was doing, so it would not have been such a huge mess. It would have been easier to have kept that area clean and the mess to a minimum.

Your life with sin can be the same way.

If you stop, pay attention and not get involved with obvious sin, you stand a better chance of not having to clean up the mess that sin brings with it.

3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
Proverbs 22:3 KJV 

Stop and think before you act. Be prudent in your decisions.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke

Sin unchecked can grow out of control. Like cancer.

According to the Cancer Treatment Center of America, the definition of cancer is

Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Cancer develops when the body’s normal control mechanism stops working. Old cells do not die and instead grow out of control, forming new, abnormal cells. These extra cells may form a mass of tissue, called a tumor.

Just like cancer, sin can grow out of control if left unchecked. Our “normal control mechanism” for sin is God, but when you shut that down or do not heed God’s warnings you been to grow more in sinful behavior. Soon your sin will “grow out of control, forming new” habits that will change you. This “uncontrolled growth” of sin “may form a mass, called a tumor” that will eventually blot out God in your life. Without God, sin fills that gap leading your life down a path of the hard road.

Be wise and be diligent and know that you need to clean first before it is too late.

You can not play with fire and not eventually get burned

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
-Proverbs 6:27-28

Have you heard people say,

“I know what I am doing. I know my limits. I won’t fall into those traps.”

as they continue to dabble in situations they should not be in.

My favorite, which I am guilty of using in my past life while drinking

“I am only going to have a few drinks with some friends. I won’t drink too much, I now know my limit.”

Then you find that person passed out somewhere, slobbering on themselves past the point of consciousness.

I am guilty of this.

I had many nights where I do not remember most of what happened that evening.

Not bragging by any means, because I was stupid for thinking that I could control my own alcoholism by “knowing my limit”.

By even going to the bar I was playing with fire and as the old saying goes, “if you play with fire long enough, you will eventually get burned”. Well, friends, I am first to say that I have been burned a lot of times for not being prudent and foreseeing the evil.

You can agree, right?

Maybe not with the alcoholism, but you have had times in your life that went totally sideways because you failed to realize that you did not have everything in control.

You ignored that inner voice that told you to flee the situation.

Playing with fire will always burn something or someone.

How to avoid having to do serious scrubbing?

So you’re maybe asking, “that’s great, so how do I avoid making a mess of my life?”

Glad you asked. Here are three areas in your life you need to be prudent and pay attention to.

1. Deal with the mess immediately. Like the fish fry mess above, if I would have cleaned early and kept up with the mess while cooking, I would have had a much easier time.Same goes with your life, it is much easier to keep a clean heart and mind if you keep up tabs on who and what you are involved in. Having to scrub out sinful habits and memories takes time. If you never put yourself in those situations you stand to have a more fruitful life in Christ.
2. Change your behaviors. If you do what you’ve always done, then you’ll be what you’ve always been. If you want to change, then you must change.
   

   Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.-unknown

   You can not go on doing the same sinful activities and expect blessings from God. You must change those wicked behaviors immediately before it is too late and it sticks to your person like the fish scales stuck to the table of my fish fry.

3. Watch your company. Most of your downfall will be within the influence of others that you surround yourself with or who you choose to associate with.
   

   20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. -Proverbs 13:20 KJV

   Like others before in the Bible, they could not be around sinful people without eventually becoming sinful themselves. If you do not remove these influences from your life you are destined to fall prey to evil. Be prudent and foreseeth the evil.

Conclusion

The lesson that my Father’s Day Fish Fry taught me. It is easier to keep the tables and utensils clean during the cooking than to clean everything after it has had time to harden. Same goes for your life. It is easier to keep it clean from sin than to remove the scars of sin after it has had time to harden.

God Bless and

Questions

• Is there areas in your life that you are still scrubbing?
• Where are the scars from sin from where you lack prudence?
• What in your life would you like God to change in your life?

Let’s have a conversation!
Leave your comments below.

God Bless.