As the story goes, Eve ate that dang piece of fruit. There were, of course, plenty of trees to choose from with plenty varieties of fruits to pick. Why, some may ask, did she have to choose
that piece of fruit on
that particular day?
The answer: Don't we do the same exact thing?
Maybe our story is different in words, but it's the exact same in principle:
There are plenty of positive ways to enjoy a Friday night--ways that are enjoyable but don't dishonor God/a person's body. How many people, though, decide to go out to the bars and participate in excessive drinking, lewd sexual encounters, and other foolish activities? They say that it's a blast--much fun and all that. But this behavior is not God-honoring.
"I don't do that," you might say. Fine. (I don't either.) So, let's think of some other things that we all do--even those of us who try our darnedest to honor God in everything we do.
Wandering eyes: There are so many images out there. And we are a curious species, aren't we? Guys struggle to keep their eyes from zoning in on the cleavage that chick is so selfishly showing off. Women get a glimpse of a rock hard abdomen and want to see more. For some, this leads to more visual exploration--online or in magazines. For others, this goes even further: addiction, obsession, affairs, pre-marital sex. It's a challenge to overcome because we're wired to be attracted to one another. God made us so that we would fit together perfectly. But curiosity killed the cat--or caused a whole litter of unexpected kittens. Yet, there are so many other beautiful and holy things to rest our eyes on: sunrises, ink in a book, eyes of our beloved, paintings in museums, and precious baby smiles. So often, we can't resist that tempt-acious fruit. And one piece is not enough.
Judging: There are many good thoughts out there. They take a tremendous amount of effort to find, sometimes. Especially when there's this voluptuous brunette chick with white streaks in her hair, red claws-for-nails, and Egyptian-thick make-up walking toward you with a shirt that reads, "I'm PMSing. Back off!" What are we supposed to do, right?
Shoot. I'm not supposed to judge her. What do I do? What should I think? I think we'd all fail at this one. Except, maybe, the reader who owns the shirt. You might ignore it. I can't help it, though. That shirt, to me, just screams something not nice at all: "White trash!" Yikes! What's a girl supposed to do? I judge. And I try to take these thoughts captive but, sometimes, these thoughts run away from me. I'm terrible when it comes to this--my personality: sarcastic and a fan of people-watching. And in situations like this, I don't know what I'm supposed to do; is this person asking me to judge her? I suppose I should look into her eyes as she passes me and smile at her and think about how much God loves her. And pray for her. I should definitely pray for her. But I choose that danged fruit. The forbidden one. Over and over again.
We all have the fruit in our lives. From the very beginning, we've been drawn to it, longing to hold it, enjoy it, and have more when we're done
What's your forbidden fruit?
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Comments (7)
Is it just me or is Adam groping Eve?
@Ex_Adyto_Cordis@xanga - Haha he totally is. That's rad.
The way I solved this problem with drugs is I made a vow not to do them. It's been ten years or so since then. I've been offered drugs a few times and sometimes the conversation goes to drugs - what a great time I had and what a great time someone else had. So far I have been able to say no. If I break my vow then I'll really be in some deep do do so when I'm tempted I think about that. My other temptations are pornography and premarital sex. I go into the rationalization mode sometimes. "I've never been married and I'm probably not going to so isn't porn okay, God?" It's not that I don't want a wife. I'm not going to take another vow concerning these. Vows are serious and shouldn't be taken lightly but it might help you say "no".
Love this post. Best one I have read in a while.
Sex...reading about it
So what if we look. It doesn't matter how many people think you are cute or how many people you think are cute or how many times we look a day. Stop judging yourself for it. Just start allowing yourself to look, and back off from your mind. The real betrayal is the friends you share emotionally with. I know that isn't a popular opinion. But you can't help what people let you see. You can help who you share parts of you with. Parts of your body. Parts of your mind. Parts of your Spirit. Parts of your heart. Don't share parts of you. Your milestones. Christians and Muslims freak so hard on looking as if looking is instant touching and their cultures are more randomly violent. If you ask me due to repression. I don't care if my s.o. looks all day long. I used to look around with him when we had more hours with each other. I care when he starts to build emotional repoire with other women. There are always going to be better looking women than me. That doesn't mean I don't want to be told that I am beautiful at least to him. Make me feel secure and why should I care if he looks. I look. I can't help but look. That doesn't mean I am going to start caring about that dude and neglect my guy's feelings. But when you repress looking you force yourself into caring about the other person'sfeelings when you really don't. Then you "don't look" look while you build emotions and then you end up cheating. Just look. The look fades right in front of you. It was the shock of a new bright sight in motion. whoohoo. Then you look at whoever you've been looking at a while and they look so good because the emotions are there and you say, "You're beautiful." and I say, "I know, but do you think I am hot?" and you say, "That's why I do you. You are hot to me and I'm glad you don't flaunt trying to be hot to every hairy dick." "Oh, you're welcome. I'm yours." "Yeah, you're mine." "But aren't you mine?" "Claim me!" "Stop being an ultra modern asshole and pretend you're a highland rogue and I'm a virgin about to be ravaged." "Will do, Milady!" See how that works. That's taking the fact that we are all sinners and making fun out of it and forgiving on the spot and setting each other up to feel good- not left out or underappreciated/admired. Stop making a big deal out of looking and people will stop giving us something to look at. That's my opinion.
its true what your saying though...when we start to compromise on sins they usually accelerate into full gear. When you give yourself to Christ he renews your heart,mind, and blesses us with the best gift in the entire world ,The Holy Spirit!!!! This is what i learned on my journey with Christ...If you dont take Christ seriously you are a follower of Christ at a distance, and when your at a distance then you start standing in the world and when you start standing in the world then you start dwelling in the world then the debacle hits and hits hard! God bless you and keep spreading the word until the whole world hears. :)