On Faith & Family: Beware the apple of temptation
By Leah Gibson of Paso Robles
Temptation. If I were to paint an analogy to describe the evils of it, I would humorously reckon it to that horrifying day when I decided to pluck my own eyebrows.
Things were starting to shape up, I just had a few plucks ahead of me and then I would be home free. Somewhere around pluck number fifty seven, however, something went wrong. To this day I’m still not sure what went wrong, all I know is that I used to have eyebrows and…now I don’t.
Okay, so although I’m exaggerating, my mistake was still a little hard to miss. Like it or not, I would have to live with the consequences of my very unwise decision for a LONG time.
Sin and temptation are like that. You know you should leave it alone. Things are good the way they are. But you can’t resist! You make the choice. You sin. You blow it. Now you have to live with the outcome.
We live in a culture where temptation is everywhere. It’s in what we watch, the magazines we read, the company we keep and behind the glass with frosting and sprinkles for only fifty cents. Because temptation is everywhere, you’d better believe it affects every member of the family, even our little people who can barely reach the bathroom sink!
Leah Gibson
This became obvious to me one evening as my family sat down for dinner. We had just finished unfolding chunky baby hands from prayer when I noticed something a little off with one of the apples in the fruit bowl at the center of the table. I picked it up and soon realized that a bite had been taken out of it and it had been placed back in the bowl with the bite mark face down.
Our two year old son Grant met eyes with me for a single moment and then quickly looked away.
Out of curiosity I began to turn over each apple. The whole five pound bag. They each had little bite marks taken out of them and they were all strategically placed face down as though someone, (not naming names,) wanted to hide what he did!
Just like the apples, sin is all the same. So why is the urge to take a bite out of each one so overwhelming? Because we all need to be filled with something and more often than not, we’re filling ourselves with the wrong thing. Some of us are really hurting, so we fill the need we have with entertainment, popularity, or soemtimes even food drugs or alcohol to fill the space that hurts. Our kids might feel insecure about themselves and seek self worth in what others think of them.
Don’t be caught off guard friends! Even in what may appear to be the most perfect family, every member struggles. Oftentimes the struggle is far too difficult to admit.
Wouldn’t it be beautiful if instead of concealing our struggles, we took the plunge and shared them with others to help them gain victory in their lives of the sin they are most ashamed of?
The Bible acknowledges this need to be filled and gives us the antidote. Isaiah 55:1 says: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” (NIV)
One day Jesus was walking through a town called Samaria and He stopped to speak to a woman at the well. She felt sad and empty. He said to her: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13 (NIV)
Ephesians 5:18-20 (NIV) “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
My hope is that instead of trying to hide when we feel empty and falling into temptation and sin, that we will encourage one another with these words and fill ourself with the only thing that lasts. A relationship with the living God!
