It Only Takes A Spark...

Received this in my email from an author buddy, Jennifer Rothschild, and it was too good to keep to myself. Click the link at the end of the story to visit Jennifer's website...

I have started a few fires in my culinary career. The worst was in an old oven in our home in Oklahoma. The oven didn't match our kitchen and I really didn't like it at all. But, it worked just fine.

That meant, of course, that the ever frugal Phil would not even consider replacing it. He wasn't concerned that it didn't match. He was most concerned that it was free.

I, on the other hand, like things to match, even if I can't see them!

All that confession has absolutely nothing to do with what happened, quite innocently, to that ugly oven.

One night I used pot holders to place a dish in the preheated oven. I carefully positioned the pan on the middle rack and closed the door. I set the pot holder on the counter and went to another room. After a few minutes, I smelled something.

I assumed some of the casserole had bubbled over and was now searing itself on the bottom of the oven. Wrong. I opened the oven door to inspect and flames leaped out at me. This was no sauce drip, this was an inferno. What had I done?

If you are an observant reader, you noted that I laid "the pot holder" rather than "the potholders" on the counter. Yes, I was cooking the other potholder.

Home alone, I grabbed a bowl of water, and threw it into the oven. Almost immediately, I realized I should have turned the oven off first! I had doused the flames, but now there was an ominous electrical crackling, and a strange new smell.

"Oh no!" I gasped, "My oven is electric and I just poured a gallon of water on those live wires."

I thought I remembered hearing somewhere that flour put out electrical fires. So I pulled out a five pound bag and sent it in to smother the inferno.

What was the result? Let's just say, we ordered pizza for dinner. Then we spent the evening cleaning the dough like substance from every inch of my kitchen and went shopping for a new matching stove the next day!

Fires demand a response, don't they? But not just any response will do. They need a wise response so they will be contained and extinguished. The wrong response to a fire just makes things worse.

We have little sparks in our hearts that require the right response also. Even though Jesus places peace in our hearts, smoldering embers of anger can still remain.

My Pastor, Dr. John Marshall says that we all have the sparks of war with in us. We're much like my oven. We have potential, with the right conditions, to explode or extinguish.

The apostle James expresses the same sentiment, saying, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?"

We all have the potential to ignite the smoldering embers within us and create a bigger fire. Anger doesn't occur outside our hearts. We don't have to invite those little sparks in because their there already.

So, will those sparks ever go away?

I'm not sure they ever completely do. But, even so, peace can prevail by inviting the water of Gods Word to flood our hearts. the best way to control the fire within is through the calming, containing truth of God's word.

So, my friend, take your temperature! If its a little too "hot,"then let the refreshing water of Gods Word and His Spirit bring you peace today.

A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, But the slow to anger calms a dispute. Pr 15:18

Blessings and Joy,
Jennifer Rothschild
Author of Lessons I Learned in the Dark (and Light), and Founder of WomensMinistry.NET