Clean hands, Clean hearts

It must be getting to be summer. The kiddos wanted to do an lemonade stand. We didn't have lemonade......or lemons..... or kool-aid. "How about Ice Tea?" Whew, that idea flew. Now, lemonade, I mean ice tea, stands tend to take more work on the part of the mama, than the kiddos. I was determined to change that today.

"Go find the paper cups. Holy cow! On second thought....First go wash your hands." If you've ever had the joy of raising a son, you know what I mean. Seven year old boy hands can be nasty! Who knows what they've touched along the way throughout the day. I know I would not eat, drink or even smell, anything that those little grubby hands had touched. And I certainly was not going to be responsible for a neighborhood outbreak of samonella or e. coli.

Thoughout today I've been thinking about our first Finding the Way of Jesus gathering. (Just wait, I'll get back to the Ice Tea Stand.) We read through Matthew 4-8 and listed all the things Jesus said to do or modeled for us to do. (Quite a list, I might add) Then, from that each person chose a command to work on this week. Being in a social justice mind frame lately, I wondered why so many of us had inner actions to work on. Rather than selling all our stuff, or going out to find needs to meet, we were asking, seeking, knocking, forgiving. All inside our hearts, minds, and souls.

Then it hit me. First, go wash your hands. As I said these words, I realized our hearts, minds, and souls need to be scrubbed up before we go out feeding the world. Not that every thing must be perfect. (Think 7 year old ice tea stand vs Martha Stewart Ice Tea Stand). But, there are preliminary inner actions that must take place before our hearts are ready to bring Jesus's action to others.

First, go wash your hands. On the other (clean) hand, let's not take too much time in getting ready.