I Think We’ve Survived But Our Carpets Are Never Going To Be The Same

“Throwing up sucks.” – Camber, age 10

Technically Camber, it blows but I understand. It’s also very evident that none of our kids have great aim when it comes to vomit. After one child threw up beside Amy’s side of the bed, we (meaning Amy) ran her into the bathroom right in front of the toilet. The thought went something like this — when you throw up again, hit the round thing we call a toilet. It’s French for “Smells Funny.”

She still missed the toilet. She did not miss the walls, the floor, the unused toilet paper dispenser, the roll of toilet paper on the wall, or the hand towel. Nothing quite says “I love you” than the splat of nasty-ness on a tile floor in the middle of the night. The older son because he’s the oldest and must excel in all things, 3 upped his sister.

So there are 4 pretty significant spots to fix, replace, blow up, bleach, cut out and just call it a day. A brutal reminder that your kids are never too old to have white carpet. And never give your kids red Gatorade if they are feeling puny. Write that one down, you’ll want to keep that one.

The reality is we throw up because something is wrong in us and our bodies don’t really care where we are or how convenient it is at the time. Something is wrong and this is the fastest way to get it out of the system. It’s not the neatest or most convenient, but it is the fastest. And when you’re throwing up, you don’t really care what you look like or even where you are at. It’s just not as important when you think your spleen is about to come through your nose.

So what’s my point? My point is this – today I caught myself more concerned about my carpets than my kids. How backwards is that? I mean – it’s a carpet and I don’t even like the carpet anyway. It’ll clean… maybe… eventually… ok… probably not ever but that’s beside the point. My kids were puking their guts out and needed more from me. I was worried about the carpets.

I’m embarrassed about that but I’m bound and determined to not let that thinking invade the church. WE can’t let that kind of thinking seep into the church. It’s happened in other places. They are more concerned about their carpets than their kids. As in – until you get cleaned up (quit living together, smoking, cussing, drinking, addicted, or cheating), you can’t play on our carpets.

It’s totally backwards of how God operates, how Jesus treats us and expects us to treat others. Jesus knows how to clean carpets and it doesn’t seem to bother him as much as it does others. So maybe we need to once again remind ourselves that at one point in time, we were the ones throwing up in the middle of the night unable to find the toilet. And he loved us anyway…and he cleaned up the mess.