I recently had a plant that was thriving.  It was a meaningful plant to my mom.  Not terribly, but it mattered to her.  I set it outside for one day to get some sunshine, and then brought it back in as it had this web like stuff in it.  Each day I would clean off the little webs between stem and stalk, and each day they would come back.

Definitely I should have researched earlier and found out what was the problem, as I could have saved the plant.  But it was spider mites.  I’ve never heard of those before but now I know.  A simple water/dishwashing liquid mix sprayed on the plant can save it.  I did that too late and I’m down to one leaf left.  I can’t bear to throw it away as that one leaf is hanging on sickly, but valiantly.

It’s not good when we let things slip.  Or we don’t take action soon enough.  We can actually lose a lot in this life.

In Israel there was a “slipping” occurring.  The territory farthest away, Dan, was slipping out of their control.

“When the territory of the Danites slipped out of their control, they went up and fought against Leshem…” (Jos 19:47).

“The Amorites forced the Danites into the hill country and did not allow them to go down into the valley.  The Amorites refused to leave Har-heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim.  When teh house of Joseph got the upper hand, the Amorites were made to serve as forced labor” (Judges 1:34-35).

The good thing is that the Israelites didn’t let it slide, but they went up and took the territory back (Joshua 19:47-48).

But what if they hadn’t?  The more you let things slip, the more it will steal from your life, your possessions, your future.

I had this happen recently.  I was so tired I stopped being fully aware of how my funds were being spent.  It was not a fun reality when I found out the unhealthy state of my financial status.  So now I’m back on a budget using budgeting software.  It takes more work for sure, but I need to recover from the slip.

It’s going to take awhile.  And in the meantime that means I’m paying the price in multiple areas.