Wash me, God...

My brother David, like most three year olds, does not like to have his face washed. He always wants to be cleaned up and dressed for the day, but when it's time to wash his face he fights! I think his preference would be that I just wave the washcloth in front of his face and we be done with it, but it doesn't work that way. Unless I take the washcloth to his face and scrub behind his ears and around his mouth and nose, he isn't really clean.

How often have I acted that way toward God? I'll ask God to wash me and help me rid my life of sin, but when God's washcloth of correction comes toward me I'll squirm and fight and try to run away. Afterward, as I'm living with the smudges of sin, I'll realize how foolish I was. Life would be easier if I would just accept the "face scrubbing" as God's care for me and not as some event to be avoided.

"Have mercy upon me, O God, according unto the multitude of they tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin."