Dirty Rotten Sinners

I had a conversation with a friend of mine the other day.

She was catching me up on her life, and in the course of the conversation she ended up sharing a great personal struggle she was having. Her 20-something-year-old-daughter had recently confiding in her that she had been seeing a guy for over a year. He is a self-proclaimed atheist (which was a disappointment to my friend) and they have been sleeping together. She also told them that he wasn't her first sexual partner.

My friend was in disbelief. She couldn't believe that her daughter was choosing a path in life so different from the path in which she was raised to follow.

She asked me what she could do to help her daughter see how some of her choices were not in line with the values and faith she was raised to believe and uphold.

I was very honest. I told her there was nothing she could do.

She persisted and continued to ask the same question periodically. What can I do?

I held fast and told her she had 'done' everything she could do, and now her daughter was an adult. She was going to make the choices she wanted to, and was also going to have to live with the consequences of those decisions.

In her frustration over not being able to 'do' something to make her daughter follow the path she wanted her to she said, "I just want her to know that I think what she is doing is wrong. I want her to know I think she is a dirty rotten sinner."

Without much thought or hesitation I replied, "Just like you."

(a lengthy pause followed, giving me time to rethink the hastiness of my reply...)

"Like me?" she questioned.

"Yup, just like you, and me, we are all dirty rotten sinners."

Today, my prayer is that you will soak in the truth of your sin, your dirty rotten sin. The more we embrace the reality of our sin, the more powerful the blood of Christ becomes. We can't change our dirty rotten sin without Him, without the life-saving blood He shed on the Cross for each of us.