Keeping Oneself Unspotted

We have a new dog. She's very sweet, but the other day she inadvertantly tracked something messy from the garage onto our carpet. We pick up this gunk from the winter roads. It's gravel and dirt mixed in with the snow. The snow sticks to the tires and mud flaps, is transported into our garage, falls off as it melts, and leaves lots of dark gunk on the garage floor.

These spots on our carpet got me to thinking of a verse I just read:

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
James 1: 27 (NKJV)

Keeping oneself unspotted from the world is difficult. There is so much dirt! When I return home, I always wipe my feet. When I see filth on a magazine cover at the grocery store, I turn my head. When I hear something offensive on the radio, I turn it off.

Keeping oneself unspotted from the world also requires preparing ourselves ahead of time. If I work in the garden, I wear old shoes and garden gloves before I go out. Likewise, when I go out into the world, I need to be protected, and I can only do this by being in the Word consistently. Notice that James doesn't tell us to stay away from the world. He says, VISIT orphans and widows. We go into the world with godly purposes, making sure to keep ourselves protected with the Word.

Now, I've got to go try something different to get those spots out of the carpet!