Waterford Crystal or Toilet Brush?

Recently I had a soar throat and decided a cup of hot tea with honey was just what the doctor ordered. I am not a big tea drinker but I keep a little on hand for just such occasions. So I dug through my pantry and located a box of “Throat Coat” tea. Oh yeah, this was going to feel good. Then I started searching in my cabinets for something in which to boil the water. I do not own a tea kettle so I thought I would just boil some water in a glass measuring cup in the microwave.

The problem was, I didn’t have a large enough glass pitcher. Most of them were plastic. Wasting precious time, my impatience and the pain in my throat were growing rapidly. I finally grabbed a large glass bowl and filled it with water so I could have more than one cup of tea. I stuck it in the microwave, boiled the water and then tried, most unsuccessfully, to pour the water into a cup. Now I not only had a soar throat but a burned hand as the boiling water went everywhere.

The lesson learned is two-fold. First, get a tea kettle! A large glass bowl is not good for pouring boiling water into a cup. Secondly, don’t try to use something for any other purpose than that for which it was created. Do you ever use what God has given you for purposes outside of God’s plan? Read 2 Tim. 2:20-21.

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 2 Tim. 2:20-21

These verses tell us to keep ourselves pure for God’s purposes. Our mouth and the rest of our body is created for God’s use and for His glory. When we use it for any reason that takes away from that purpose we are sinning against God and not using our lives in the fashion for which they were created.

When my children speak ugly to one another with name calling or when they use words that are simply inappropriate, I will often put their mouth in a talking time out. I tell them their mouth was created by God to give life, and not to criticize, tear down, or otherwise poison the environment. When they choose to use the mouth God gave them for life-giving purposes they are allowed to speak.

As an adult, I need to use the same discretion. God gave me a body that I need to fill with healthy food and use for healthy purposes. I need to bless my family and God in how I use my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength. If I am constantly run-down due to too many commitments, am I ready for God’s noble use? If I bad talk my neighbors or criticize my kid’s teachers, is that what God had in mind for my mouth?

Think of it this way, would you use a toilet scrubber to brush your teeth? Of course not! Why? Because our mouth wasn’t made for a toilet brush nor was a toilet brush made for the mouth. That’s not what the scrubber was made to do. It was made to clean toilets, not teeth. In the same way, would you fill a Waterford crystal pitcher with toilet water? Of course not! Why? Because a crystal pitcher was created to hold something worth drinking. In the same way, we need to keep ourselves pure and ready for God’s plans.

What are you putting into your vessel? What are you allowing to come out? Are you an instrument for noble purposes? How can you keep yourself pure and ready for God’s use? You need to know that God made you for a specific purpose. You are God’s treasure. Just as my Waterford crystal is a treasure to me. You are valuable and special to Him. He wants to use you for great things that bring Him glory.

Sometimes in life we make choices to do things that are not part of God’s purpose for us. When we do this we are no longer behaving like the fine crystal pitcher but the dirty toilet scrubber. This happens when we choose to say words that we know we shouldn’t, when we have a disrespectful attitude, when we demand our own way instead of being thoughtful of another persons feelings. We are allowing yucky, grimy sin to cheapen the purpose for which we were created.

In the immortal words of Hannah Montana, ‘everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days’. We will all at some point make a poor choice. When this happens we can choose to immediately confess and repent to God. The very moment we turn away from our sin and ask God to forgive us – he does it! God can make us new again. I encourage you to meditate on these precious verses, perhaps over a nice hot cup of tea, and ask God to use you for His noble purposes. After all, you are a noble treasure fit for service to the King.