Shortly after our son was born, my husband decided to do a DIY home improvement project. Our kitchen faucet was leaking where it was mounted on the wall. He had to find a new faucet that did not come from the sink but came from the wall. He sat down and read all the information and instructions that came with the new faucet. He got all his tools out and helped me get set up around the corner in the living room with our sweet nineteen-month-old daughter and our two-week-old son. As I sat back in our ‘hand me down’ recliner to feed my son and watched my toddler play with her favorite glow worm, my husband began his DIY plumbing project. Sleep was a valuable commodity that was really hard to come by, so when our son fell asleep in my arms, I settled in for what I hoped would be an hour or maybe more for him to nap. As our son slept, our toddler brought me a book, crawled up in the chair with us, and I began reading her a story. After a short time, I heard some strange noises coming from the kitchen. I could hear something that sounded like running water, like a river, or maybe a waterfall. I called out to my husband but heard no response. The water noise seemed to get louder, and when I called out to him again, all I could hear was gushing water and some gasping noises. As soon as I could, I gently set my infant down, and pulled my toddler off the chair, and rushed into the kitchen. The first thing I saw as I turned the corner was that our kitchen was flooded! I sloshed through the water to find my husband standing in front of the sink as ice cold water came gushing out of the wall, hitting him square in the chest so hard that he was unable to speak. As I got closer, he was finally able to get his hands up, and divert the water from hitting him, to stream into the sink. I asked him where the shut-off valve for the water to the house was, and obviously, he had NO idea. I grabbed the biggest wrench I could find and began running around the outside of the house until I finally found the shut off. When I returned, the floor had about 3 inches of water, my husband was soaked from head to toes, and our toddler had made her way into the kitchen and began slashing in the biggest ‘puddle’ she had ever seen. My husband and I looked at each other, and when we saw the pure joy on our daughter’s face as she ran and jumped in the flooded kitchen, all we could do was laugh. As we mopped up the mess, my husband explained to me that he had read all the instructions, and nowhere in the instructions did it say to shut off the water. In hindsight, he knew that he should have turned off the water, but he had gotten caught up in the written directions and the excitement of getting his project done. It took the entire weekend, but by Sunday evening we had a new faucet that didn’t leak, we now knew where the water shut-off valve was located, and the bonus was that my kitchen floor was now super clean after mopping up the water, even under the refrigerator.
That day my husband and I were reminded that no matter what we do, there is a reason for doing things in order. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about the order of the way we worship, the order in which we get dressed, the order we add ingredients to something we are cooking, or as in this case, the order in fixing or building something, there is a reason we complete one step, before we begin the next step. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth giving them an order in which they were to do worship. When doing a DIY project, there is an order that must be followed, or there will be consequence. In this case, my husband didn’t turn off the water before he began, and we ended up with a flooded kitchen. Everything turned out great in the end, but because we didn’t do things in the right order, the project that should have taken one to two hours turned into a weekend project.
“But let all things be done decently and in good order.” 1 Corinthians 14:40
