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Diapers


The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves. (Proverbs 13:5)
          Some years ago as I studied the fruit of the Spirit, I made an interesting discovery. As I considered self-control, I realized that when people are babies, we put them in diapers because they have no control or no understanding that there needs to be any control over the emptying of bladder or bowels. As the child grows, we teach them to use the toilet instead of going in their pants or on furniture or lap. For a while, there are accidents, but the goal is for the child to learn how to control, or how to properly address the urge to urinate or defecate. We further teach our children some measures of self-control. That’s part of what good parenting is about: teaching our kids how to deal with their own diapers (lives) and the yucky stuff that ends up therein.  
        Those dirty diapers come to mind as I consider today’s passage. Recently, I’ve had a couple conversations. After one of them, someone used the word “triggered” to describe the response of another participant. That’s a good word for it. Another description uses a term I don’t approve, but it is basically the idea that the person dirtied his/her diaper, explosively. He/she raised a stink. Now, once again, I’m not talking about a person being wicked in terms of murder, assault, rape, pedophilia. This is domesticated wickedness. One of the two apologized – dealt with the dirty diaper. The other one didn’t. I’ve no doubt that some folks would claim that if that is the imagery to be used, then I’m not only full of it, but have diarrhea, constantly. They may be right – I find it difficult to walk away from subjects, even if we’ve been over the ground before. If someone else wants to raise a stink, I don’t back down or go away. That’s might be dirtying my diapers, or it might be a righteous one hating what is false. I suppose the answer to that question is in the eyes of the beholder.

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