Summary: "Oh, no!" moaned Kurt as he looked at the swimming pool. "There's green stuff in the water!" He and Kristen had the responsibility of putting chemicals into the pool when needed. But they hadn't done their job. "Now we'll have to put in extra chemicals to kill all that algae, and we won't be able to swim for a couple of days," added Kurt, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "And according to the weather report, they're going to be the hottest days we've had all summer!" Kristen sighed, fanning herself. "How did it get like this so fast? The water looked fine yesterday." "Have you been using the water tester every day?" asked Mom as she brought out a couple of ice cream cones. Kurt shook his head. "I guess we just thought we'd notice if it was getting dirty." "Yeah," said Kristen. "All that green stuff wasn't there yesterday." "You didn't see it yesterday," replied Mom, "but it was there all right. If you had used the water tester, you would have known that." Mom gazed thoughtfully at the unappealing algae. "The sooner you get the chemicals in there, the sooner it will be clean again," she added, returning to the house. That evening, Dad heard about the problem. "You didn't see the algae, so you didn't do anything about it," he said. "Does that remind anybody of so-called little sins we commit?" The kids--and even Mom--looked puzzled by his question. Dad smiled. "When unfriendly or unkind things we do seem very small to us, we hardly consider them to be sin at all. So we don't do anything about them. By the time we see how ugly they really are, we wonder why we didn't recognize them as sin in the first place. If we'd use our sin tester more often, we might avoid some of our problems by stopping them before they get so big." "Our sin tester!" exclaimed Kristen. "What do you mean?" Mom's eyes twinkled. "I'm sure Dad means the Bible," she said. "It helps us know when we're doing something wrong." "And then we can apply the chemicals--we can do what the Bible says and change our behavior before our actions get worse," suggested Kurt with a grin. How About You? Are you using the Bible to test your actions? Do they measure up to God's standards? Do you know what God says about lying? Cheating? Loving? Forgiving? Use your Bible every day. It will make you aware of sin--even what people consider to be little sins. They won't get out of control if you confess them and obey what God says in His Word. Today's Key Verse: How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. (Psalm 119:9) Today's Key Thought: Test your life with the Bible
