We had a terrible time with gnats this past summer. Despite our automatic atomizer, a dozen swarmed the lights at night and several buzzed us during dinner. So I looked up the reproductive process of gnats and found out why. We live in a veritable breeding ground—standing water (water buckets for the dogs), damp landscaping (mulch in the flower beds and more rain this year than any in the past ten), food (a large vegetable garden, a blueberry patch, and grape vines), and, ahem, animal residue—we live in the country, it’s everywhere.
So keeping the doors and windows shut should fix the problem, right? No, they breed in garbage cans too. When you live in a small rural county there is no weekly pickup. You must carry your own garbage and trash to the dump. To minimize the number of trips we put all the flammable items in a paper bag to burn in the “burn barrel” onsite, and the wet garbage in the kitchen can until it fills enough to empty it into the one outside. That means our kitchen can is probably emptied less often than yours because there is no paper trash “filler,” and that means plenty of time for any gnats that whiz in a door as we enter or leave to lay eggs and hatch. I have tried spraying it every morning with insecticide, but even that does not seem to help.
There is no getting around it. Garbage breeds vermin of one sort or another all the time. They simply love filth. Putting it in the garbage can, as long as the can is still inside the house, doesn’t really help a bit. You have to remove it from the house entirely, and soon enough that the gnats cannot breed.
If we don’t want spiritual vermin, we have to get rid of the garbage in our hearts. It doesn’t help to just try to hide it. Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, Paul told the Roman brethren in 13:14. You can’t just stash it away in case you might want to indulge again. You have to remove it completely, and soon enough that it doesn’t breed yet more. The Devil loves the dirt. His minions wallow in it. Why do we think it won’t soil us too as long as no one knows? Would you eat a meal that was swarming with gnats and flies?
Get rid of the gnats in your soul. The only way is to empty that garbage can inside yourself and keep it that way.
…Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. And I will be to you a father and you shall be to me sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us therefore cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, 2 Cor 6:17-7:1.
Dene Ward
So keeping the doors and windows shut should fix the problem, right? No, they breed in garbage cans too. When you live in a small rural county there is no weekly pickup. You must carry your own garbage and trash to the dump. To minimize the number of trips we put all the flammable items in a paper bag to burn in the “burn barrel” onsite, and the wet garbage in the kitchen can until it fills enough to empty it into the one outside. That means our kitchen can is probably emptied less often than yours because there is no paper trash “filler,” and that means plenty of time for any gnats that whiz in a door as we enter or leave to lay eggs and hatch. I have tried spraying it every morning with insecticide, but even that does not seem to help.
There is no getting around it. Garbage breeds vermin of one sort or another all the time. They simply love filth. Putting it in the garbage can, as long as the can is still inside the house, doesn’t really help a bit. You have to remove it from the house entirely, and soon enough that the gnats cannot breed.
If we don’t want spiritual vermin, we have to get rid of the garbage in our hearts. It doesn’t help to just try to hide it. Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, Paul told the Roman brethren in 13:14. You can’t just stash it away in case you might want to indulge again. You have to remove it completely, and soon enough that it doesn’t breed yet more. The Devil loves the dirt. His minions wallow in it. Why do we think it won’t soil us too as long as no one knows? Would you eat a meal that was swarming with gnats and flies?
Get rid of the gnats in your soul. The only way is to empty that garbage can inside yourself and keep it that way.
…Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. And I will be to you a father and you shall be to me sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us therefore cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, 2 Cor 6:17-7:1.
Dene Ward
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