Temptation:  Perspective – Keep in Step with the Spirit

Happy Mother’s Day, former procrastinators!  And many thanks to all you women who nurture others in the love of the Lord. 

What a good time to remember “momisms” we grew up with – those comments and advice your mom would use in dealing with you.  You know, “If everybody else jumped off a cliff, would you too?” or “Don’t make me come back there.”  There’s actually wisdom in many of those sayings.  And there’s the strong likelihood that – ahem – we, too, have used them.

One of my mother’s sayings has stuck with me.

“You have to let that roll off you like water off a duck’s back.”

That’s been effective counsel over the years.  I witnessed her living it out one day when I overheard a conversation.  Another lady apologized to Mother for some way she thought she’d wronged my mom.  Mother’s response:  “Oh, honey, you’d have to do a whole lot more than that to bother me!”

My mom was good at keeping things in perspective.  Some things just aren’t worth paying attention to.  Don’t let them affect you.  They’ll mire you up, tangle you up, divert you when you could be moving right along.

We’re tempted to feel sorry for ourselves, to have hurt feelings, to put off a job that overwhelms us.  We think they “make” us feel justified in pouting, holding a grudge, or sloughing off.  They cannot “make” us if we don’t allow them to.  “Let not your hearts be troubled.  You believe in God, believe also in me.” (John 14:1)  This is one of the many “let” and “let not’s” in scripture.  They are commands God gives us the power to carry out. 

A biblical perspective magnifies the Lord, not the temptation.  When we focus on His greatness, truth, power, love and faithfulness, the appeal and power of the bait shrinks.  The consequences of taking the bait show up as undesirable.

When we maintain this biblical perspective, we can allow something to “roll off us” and not penetrate our thinking, leading us to wrong choices.

Keep paddling, ducky, and have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Because I said so. (Wink.)

What temptation do you need to get into biblical perspective and deny it attention?