It's interesting how the family responds when a newborn baby has his first bowel movement. They all stand around, the mother and the father are so proud, they point at it, they look at it, they cheer, "Look! He had his first stinkies!!"

All kinds of jokes are made about it. Then, as the months go on, people begin to fight over who has to change the baby's diaper - it is no longer a laughing matter.

All kinds of excuses are given why each one should not have to change it. The baby-sitters make up reasons why they should not have to change diapers. But the fact is, somebody has to change them.

As the baby grows a little bit older, you can see a look of satisfaction on his face after he has filled his diaper to the maximum capacity. He is so happy that there's no more pressure on his stomach.

He walks around giving off a horrendous odor but has a big smile on his face, acting like nothing ever happened. Yet, whoever he walks by experiences that undeniable fragrance that gives proof that somebody has filled his pants.

Now when a child is small we might laugh about it or joke about it, but as he grows up a little bit it is no longer a laughing matter.

At some point the child is expected to learn how to control himself and not continue to make stinkies in his diapers. If a healthy child were seven years old and still putting stinkies in his diaper, it wouldn't be funny anymore.

If he were 13 years old and still wearing a diaper, smiling every time he filled it, it wouldn't be funny anymore. It would be gross, sick, and pathetic, Yet, that is how so many Christians are.

When somebody first gives his heart to the Lord, he is sure to make mistakes. He thinks, "Oh well, it was just an accident." And then he makes another mistake, "Oh, I just had another accident...just had another accident."

Well, if Christians are still having the same kind of "accident" after four and five years of being saved, it's as if they keep filling their pants.

In other words, they keep with the same attitudes, or with the same habits, or with the same sins. They walk around just like a baby, acting like nothing is ever wrong. They're rebellious, they have bad attitudes, they're cutting people down, they're lying, cheating, stealing, involved in immorality.

Yet. they come to church and act like everything is just fine, but everybody can tell that there is an aroma that they give off. They often cannot even smell it themselves. They say, "I can't help it. It's just a problem I have."

It's not a problem, it is sin.

Just as it is sick for and older child to have a diaper on and continue to fill it, it's sick to the Lord for us to continue to get ourselves "dirty in sin" over and over and over again. He wants us to learn how to deal with it. He wants us to learn how to control ourselves in the same way a child must learn how to control his bodily functions.

Prov. 25:28: "Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control."

What the Bible is saying here is that if you lack self-control it's like you do not have any protection around your life.

We continually use the excuse, "I just can't help it, I can't control myself, it's just a problem I have."

You've no protection against sin. You've not built up a resistance against it. That resistance is like a bulletproof wall to the devil. But if you don't have that wall of resistance, any little temptation or anything that comes your way gets through your shield.

It's not good enough for us to say, "Well, I just can't control myself. It's not really my fault." You need to start praying about it and learn how to control different parts of your life so you don't walk around as a Christian with dirty pants.

Take a few minutes now and meditate on Prov. 25:28. Ask the Lord to show you how you can start to build up that wall of protection in your life.

Source: Mature Christians Are Boring People...And Other Myths About Maturity In Christ by Ron Luce.
Excerpt permission granted by Albury Publishing