Just before we left on a tour to Alaska, I bought some cheap bass guitar strings. Figuring that they'd do for the trip, I saved a few bucks and wound them on to my Fender Precision.
We were only three days in when the first one broke! I didn't think too much about it until the second one snapped a week later. Then the third!! Before the E string followed the doomed path of its predecessors, I changed it and since there was no place to buy new strings, I finished the tour on "recycled" strings.
The problem with broken strings is that they throw everything out of tune! All the other strings change pitch when one breaks. It sounds horrible and you need to change that wire as quickly as possible!
When we allow sinful things in our lives, they have the same effect as a broken guitar string, throwing our spiritual lives out of whack. When things like unforgiveness, envy, bitterness, self-pity or selfishness are allowed to creep in, hang around and get a foothold in our soul, our whole spiritual "melody" goes sour!
We find that it becomes hard to pray, that our attitude gets stale and moldy-and Joy is just the long-forgotten name of our third grade teacher!
UNTIL YOU CHANGE THAT BROKEN STRING! Whatever it takes to deal with your spiritual disharmonics, get it done! Give forgiveness. Work on the attitude. Let go of the self-pity. Dump the Bitterness. And let God replace your selfishness with His ways. It's only when you get rid of that defunctionalized string that your spiritual melody can become sweet and real.
HAGD!
