Clean stoves and clean lives

Tonight I finally tackled something that I had putting off for a few days. A couple days ago I had three pots spill over in the course of two days on two of my stove burners. That means of course that I was left with some pretty dark gunk around my burner. So, after I did all the dishes tonight I finally decided to tackle that mess. Unfortunately, since it had been sitting there for a few days, the gunk had ideas of its own and they didn't match up with mine. Now, 15 minutes, plenty of elbow grease and some baking soda later I have managed to clean up most of that mess.
While I was tackling that black stuff on my white stove, I was struck by the parallels between the stove and my lives. Sin mars my being and is just as unsightly as that burnt on mess was on my white stove.
Also, if I let sin sit around in my life and don't deal with it quickly it gets the chance to sit around and really plant itself. If I had cleaned up the stove when the mess happened it would have come clean a lot easier. If I would confess and clean up the sin in my life when God first brings it to mind it would also be a lot easier. When you let sin stick around it is very unsightly and becomes very hard to remove.
I know the reluctance of admitting sin and dealing with it, the task is not easy by far. However, the sooner it is dealt with the easier it is to deal with.