I have a watch that I really love. It’s swiss made and keeps really good time which keeps me on schedule. The problem is that for the past several months the clasp has been opening if it just slightly brushes against my clothing.
I tried fixing it several times. I watched videos online and replicated them to the best of my ability only to have the watch clasp immediately fall open again.
Over the summer I switched to a different watch. I call it my summer watch because it has a white band and a mother of pearl dial. It’s a square watch so I generally use it only for warmer weather since it tends to catch on things are well, and it’s difficult to put on long sleeve clothing.
But when fall arrived I really wanted to go back to wearing my “go to” watch. My everyday watch I call it because when I wear it, I don’t even notice I have it on.
My husband told me to just take the watch to a jeweler to be fixed.
But I never seem to have time to do that. Taking it in, leaving it and picking it up seemed like a real hassle to me, not to mention having to pay to get it fixed.
So, instead I chose to watch the videos again.
There were two of them.
In the first video the gentleman talks about using a cartoon board, placing the watch on it, using a round tool fit into the clasp and gently hitting it to reshape the clasp.
I had to laugh every time he called it “the cartoon board”, because it was actual a piece of cardboard from a carton!
Still I gave it a try. The clasp did not work any better, but I did manage to break my husbands drill bit in the process. He didn’t mind though since he had given it to me. I tried again with a nail, which produced no better results.
It did seem odd that this perfectly good watch should need to have the clasp reshaped.
Why would it need that when it worked perfectly well when I got it in its original shape?
On to the next video, oh yes, I remembered this one. There were no verbal instructions on this video. You just had to watch the procedure. This time I watched more intently.
First, the demonstrator closed the watch, pulled in it and it fell open. Then he did it a second time to show that truly this watch was not staying closed. Next, he produced a heavy steel instrument. He placed a piece a plastic on it and then put the watch clasp on top of the plastic. He secured the clasp in an upright position and hit it twice with a hammer.
Yes, I had followed this procedure previously, however I had modified it a bit. Instead of putting the watch clasp on heavy metal which I thought might break it, I had used the cardboard from the previous video I watched, which hadn’t worked.
This time I headed out to the garage and to the workbench. I spotted my husbands vice.
Perfect I thought.
I located a plastic bag and placed it on top of the vice, situated the watch clasp on top of it. Aligned it with my finger, took a hammer and hit it twice!
When I picked it up the plastic bag had ripped clear through!
The watch looked ok, so I put it on and closed the clasp and Eureka!!
It stayed closed, it worked!
I was pretty, pleased with myself!
I came in the house and told my husband I fixed it. “Good.” He said.
He didn’t seem too impressed.
But I realized something. When you don’t use the right tools, you don’t get the right results.
Trying this technique on a piece of cardboard didn’t work because the cardboard was too soft and didn’t allow the clasp to compress enough.
I thought about the sin in my life. How sometimes I soften the sin in my life by making excuses for myself. One lie I may tell myself is, “I’m only human and God expects me to make mistakes.” Or I may say, Even though I make mistakes, God knows I’m weak but his word says he forgives me anyway.”
While both, of these statements are true, they aren’t valid excuses for softening my approach to the sin in my life.
Sin needs to be hit on the head, and it needs to be hit hard. It needs to be hit so hard so that it can be contained and not allowed to continue to grow.
Sin needs to be identified for what it is, disobedience.
When I obediently followed the correct procedure for fixing my watch it worked!
When I obediently follow God’s procedure for addressing sin in my life it works too!
So, what’s the procedure?
Take your sin to God and confess it.
Ask God to forgive you with a truly repentant heart.
Listen to God’s direction and follow it exactly and let the peace of God rule in your heart.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
Perspectives: From Lynn 