Broken Waterpipes

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December and January brought some unusually cold weather for our area in Alabama. We had extended times of freezing temperatures. My husband did some extra insulating on our pipes. And we left a couple of faucets with a slight drip overnight. On our property is also my parent's trailer. We had the privilege of them living on our property for years. Six years ago, my mom had to go to assisted living because of dementia. She had become a danger to others. Four years ago, my dad passed away. One of my brothers lived with them. He helped care for them. With the situation with my parents, my brother hit a depression and could no longer live in the trailer. He would come by, once a week, though, just to check on things. I wanted to respect his privacy, so I never really went down there. After his first year of being gone from the trailer, he decided he couldn't even go there anymore. So, my husband and I had to make a decision about what to do. The trailer was so old, we would not get anything out of selling it. So, we decided to restore it and use it. We were gonna have a game room for the grandkids, a library, and a home gym. When I went in down there, I realized how neglected it had been. That trailer was in such bad shape, I had people tell me to just burn it down. I did not. I fixed it up. We have been utilizing it for a couple of months and then the freeze hit. My brother and my husband had two solutions for protecting the pipes at the trailer. They were so busy with their jobs, though, they never made the time. They just left the water dripping at each of the trailer thinking that would be sufficient. It was NOT. After the freeze was over, my husband found two busted water pipes. When he was fixing it, he found another, and then another. After 2 weeks of fixing busted water pipes, he concluded that we were going to have to replace every single pipe. The age of the trailer, years of neglect, and the stresses of the freeze was more than those pipes could bear. Not only were they cracked or busted, when my husband would go to repair them, they would just crumble in his hands. For Christians, this is kind of how we live life. We press on through the daily grind never having time to care for our spiritual health. We have little to no time for Bible reading and serious prayer. We refuse to take the precautions commanded by Scripture for protection our lives. We take part in entertainment or socialize with those who have no regard for Biblical values. Then we are bombarded with attacks of satan and the challenges of the world. And over time, we spiritually deteriorate. Then when we have to live through the cold winters of life, we crumble under the pressure because we have neglected or abused the life God has given us. We become a broken waterpipe. Thankfully, God is the Great Healer. He is a miracle worker. He can restore what is damaged. Just like my husband has to completely replace our pipes, God can completely replace the sinful habits that cause deterioration and damage. All we have to do is crumble in His hands and let Him go to work.