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One summer night, my husband and I decided to take our family to see a fairly new release at the movie theater. I should probably mention that the movie started at 9:25 pm. Yes, we were the crazy family with 4 kids out at the theater that late, but it was summer so what the heck! We of course had to get the big popcorn and some large pops - what’s the movies without that, right?
By about half way through the movie, I’m pretty sure my little 4 year old had drunk more pop than anyone else in the family. We’re past 10:00 now, so I let him know he had to be finished drinking. I thought I would make it easier for him so I began to move the pop to a cup holder out of his reach, but he assured me that it was okay because he was not going to drink anymore.
As the minutes ticked on in the movie, I became just as entertained by my 4 year old as I did the movie. I saw him looking at me slyly and leaning forward by the straw. He wasn’t drinking the pop, he just wanted to get a little closer to it. I was proud of his self-control, but could see a mile away what was to come next.
More time passed, and this time he smiled at me as he rubbed his lips on the straw. I gave him the mom look with the raised eyebrows and told him that he cannot have any more pop. He assured me that he was not going to take a drink. He may smile by the straw. He may put his lips on the straw. But this little dude was full of assurance that he was not going to actually drink from the straw.
I’m sure you are fully aware of what I saw the next time I looked over at my son. As I turned to look at him, my sweet 4 year old was directly disobeying me as he took a big drink of the pop. I told him he was not allowed to have any more pop and moved the drink.
I really don’t think that many of us are much different than my 4 year old. Oh, we will swear that we would never do a particular something… we would never drink from the straw. But, the opportunity comes for us to just smile by the straw. The opportunity comes for us to take a step toward the thing we shouldn’t do and so we allow ourselves that step because we tell ourselves we are not actually going to do it.
Then, the opportunity for us to put our lips to the straw comes and since we are already leaned forward smiling by it, it makes it so much easier to get that much closer to it. We still tell ourselves that we won’t do THAT, we’ll just do a little of THIS and then a little more of THIS. We finally drink from the straw and we are immediately met with the regret of our own failure.
Many people find themselves in a mess after drinking from whatever temptation their straw represents, and they wonder how they got there. If they could take a lesson from my 4 year old, they would see that it all started when they smiled by the straw. They leaned toward something they should have fled from in the first place. If we want to live in blessings and fullness of life, we have to have a standard that says I won’t ever even take that first step in the direction of that sin. Several small THIS’s eventually become one destructive THAT.
Father God, I realize that I’m not too smart, too strong, nor too spiritual to really mess up. I have to have strong standards that I am not willing to compromise. When I see the potential for sin, I pray that You give me strength and an overwhelming urgency to run away instead of taking a step toward it!