A Lesson in Smushed Bread

Today I loaded the girls in the minivan and off we went to the land of roll back pricing to pick up a few groceries. As we were preparing to check out I noticed my 3 year old had grabbed the loaf of bread and put it in the front with her. Right in the middle of the loaf were a couple of pieces of mangled looking bread. I sighed and my oldest asked if I'd like her to go get another loaf real quick. In that split second I realized a teaching moment.

How often have you found yourself in that kind of situation where you are tempted to trade in the goods you damaged for one more perfect? Is it really a big deal?

Let's look at it from a spiritual perspective. Could you imagine if God took that attitude with us? We know we have all sinned, made mistakes in our lives we regret, etc. When we come to know Christ, He wipes our slate clean and forgives us our every sin. But what if He used our mistakes to judge whether or not we were worth keeping or passing us by for another? It seems to me that God has used some of the most "mangled people" to do the most honoring work for Him. When we are repentant in our hearts for what we've done we are made perfect once again. It's a continual process of forgiveness. We never arrive at perfection until we leave our earthly bodies.

"As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12
"For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:13-14

My conclusion? We left the store with the mangled bread in hand. After all, it was a result of my child so why shouldn't I take responsibility for it? I've learned that mangled bread is still edible. :)