Why do we do that?

My cat loves any water, except the clean water in her dish. Her favorite is the water in the goldfish bowl. But she shows up every morning to lick the water off the door of my embarrassingly dirty shower, and bathtime for the kids always leaves her hankering for the gritty, soapy aftermath in the bottom of the jacuzzi.

I don’t understand it. The goldfish water smells fishy – not just from the fish, but from the additives I put in it to make it safe for the fish. Oh, then there’s the toilets, the bathroom sinks, half empty water glasses drooled in by one of the kids.

But when I put her water dish full of crystal clear, unscented water down, she walks over, sniffs  it, looks at me, and walks away. Every once in awhile she will humor me with a lap or two, but the amount of cat litter I scoop, does not correlate to the amount of water that disappears from her dish. And I have to refill the goldfish bowls more than what would be required simply from evaporation, even in the dry winter air.

My theory is this – she was born a wild kitten in my sister’s barn. She drank from a nearly stagnant rivulet that, I guess a generation or two ago had been used as a sewer. It is all she knew, and now, when presented with something different, though better, she snubs it.

I, unfortunately find myself doing the same thing at times. When presented with a new way of behaving, that will definitely bring more joy into my life than my current way of  behaving, I may give it a little try. But in the long run, I go back to the old lousy way of behaving.

I guess this is a common human problem, since Paul writes a whole passage on it in Romans 7. Verses 15 and 24-25 are my favorites of that section.

I am thankful, that, unlike my cat, whom I allow to continue to drink dirty water, God finds positive and negative pressures to encourage me to change, until, eventually, I want to choose the new, better route. Though I still get lazy and drink the toilet water at times, that happens less and less often, and he promises the same for all of us!