Who Will Win?

My now 5 year old son just started preschool this year, and is absolutely LOVING going to the library every week to check out a new book to bring home to read. Since school started he has brought home a “Who Would Win?” book every single week...from sharks v. whales to pythons v. crocodiles, I am sure we will end up reading the entire series by the end of the year! However, it inspired me as I was looking at my yet again opening c-section incision...to write my own rendition of “Who Would Win?: Hydrogen Peroxide v. Hibiclens”

Many of you probably already know, but I was today years old when I found this out…and unfortunately had to learn the hard way...

"Hydrogen peroxide is actually detrimental to wound healing," says Dr. Yaakovian. "It prevents healing rather than promoting it."

Hydrogen Peroxide: "When you have an open wound, you don't have that normal skin barrier there protecting you anymore," explains Dr. Yaakovian. "This exposed area of tissue then becomes vulnerable to infection."

To help prevent this, people often douse a cut with hydrogen peroxide before applying ointment and bandage. They've been doing it for decades, in fact. But it's a practice that's no longer advised.

"Hydrogen peroxide is actually detrimental to wound healing," says Dr. Yaakovian. "It prevents healing rather than promoting it."

That's because its reactive power isn't specific to germs. Hydrogen peroxide also kills normal cells within the wound — including healthy skin cells and immune cells — and slows blood vessel formation, all of which are important for wound healing.

(insert from: houstonmethodist.org)

While the Hibilclens website states:

Hibiclens: Strong for hospital use, yet gentle for everyday use1. No matter what your day brings, you can be confident that Hibiclens? can help protect against germs that live on the skin.

Who do you think would win?

The answer is pretty obvious now that you have the knowledge, however, when I was younger my mother slapped on hydrogen peroxide every time I had a cut or scrape and we went on with our day. So what did I do when my c-section incision started to open and I wanted to keep it clean?

I doused it with hydrogen peroxide, covered it up, and went on with my day…only to my dismay when it got worse every single day. Why I didn’t call my doctor or even try to look up what to do for an incision opening? Because I thought I knew what to do. Only my knowledge was based on what I believed from my past and I didn’t even think to question or ask if there was another way. You can only imagine how this scenario ended…me in the ER at 3am with my mom (how ironic) and a nasty infection that could have easily been prevented if I had taken the time to gain some wisdom.

Where am I going with this?

We all have wounds

From trauma and depression

To suicidal thoughts, shame, and uncertainty

The question then is

How are you taking care of it?

Many of us

Myself included in the past

Simply because of the wisdom we lack

Doused our wounds with what we believe would help

From drugs & alcohol

To therapy & medications

All of which are temporary

& most of which simply ate at me

Those worldly methods of self help tore at my heart

Eating both the good & the bad

Only leaving my wound bigger

Than the one I originally had

And I was so mad

I thought I was doing everything right

Because I was still reading my Bible

Worshipping

Praying

Fasting

And trying with all my might to get rid of my bad habits

& every time I failed

My soul saddened

Leaving me in a deeper hole

& a darker pit

Until I got to the point

Of thinking this was it…

This was all my life would ever be

No one was ever going to come to rescue me

So I better buck up

Try harder

Be smarter

Do better

You get the picture

The only problem was

I was attempting to heal my wounds

With the water of this world

I was balancing right on that very thin line

Attempting to “manifest”

Reading books like “The Secret”

& believing that everything was up to me

& that I had the power to control my destiny

Except that water was just one molecule more than what I needed - because God didn’t need me to fix everything - He was waiting for me to realize

that HE and HIM alone was all I would ever need

I needed to decrease

“At first glance, hydrogen peroxide actually looks pretty similar to water — by way of chemical formula, that is. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) contains just one more oxygen atom than water (H2O).

The addition may seem slight, but it's a fairly unstable, reactive one — the one that makes hydrogen peroxide a powerful disinfectant. It's also why it bubbles and fizzes when it comes into contact with certain organic and reactive substances.

"Hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidizing agent," says Dr. Michael Yaakovian, a surgeon and wound care specialist at Houston Methodist. "This means it's capable of causing oxidation, which is the reaction it uses to destroy the cellular walls and other components that germs need to survive." - houstonmethodist.org

I was adding in an extra molecule - me.

If I wanted to stop the “bleeding” I needed to decrease and fully rely on my Savior and King to cleanse me off everything. He already paid the price. He already washed me clean….I just needed to believe.?

Like Hibiclens He is strong enough to cleanse and heal any and every wound, yet He is gentle enough and patient enough to wait for us to make room to come to him DAILY to drink of His Living Water and never thirst again.?

May we stay hungry enough to desire and seek out His wisdom, yet humble enough to know that we will never be enough and only through Him can our souls truly be healed and our spirits fully live.?

Amen ?????

"But whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. But the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water [satisfying his thirst for God] welling up [continually flowing, bubbling within him] to eternal life.” - John 4:13-14