Science Experiment: Sprinkle pepper on top of water, and then touch the surface with some dish soap on your finger. The soap breaks the surface tension and the pepper goes to the outside of the bowl. The girls and I had fun doing this, but we have done it before. So this time, I wanted to go big: do it with glitter instead of pepper. So we did, but…EPIC FAIL! The glitter was in large pieces, and I guess too heavy for the experiment to work. But it got me thinking: when I did it the right way, the way I knew would work, it worked. When I tried it my own way, failure.
James 4:6-7 says, “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” God’s way works best, and when we humbly follow Him, things go much better!
We wanted to do this illustration to show how we can chase away sin and temptation (just like the soap “chases away” the pepper). Anyone who has ever tried to clean glitter up but still found more a week later can understand why I thought glitter would be a good picture of sin, but we aren’t strong enough to defeat Satan on our own (just like the soap is apparently not strong enough to chase away glitter!). With God empowering us, Satan has no choice but to run away.
So why 2 bowls with the glitter but only one for the pepper? That’s what happens when a little soap drips into the green bowl before we start the second experiment! 🤦♂️ Wow, if I can’t do a simple experiment on my own, how much more do I need God’s help every day to defeat sin and temptation! I’m glad James 4:8a says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.”