Getting Stuck by a Cactus

A happy Tuesday to all of you who are reading my blog today, and a special welcome to Proverbs 31 devotion readers who are visiting for the first time.

I live in Arizona, where we don't have daylight savings time in most of the state. So this time of year, we are on Pacific time - which means we get to sleep later than the rest of the US (ha, ha).

Today my devotion was about my daughter "dancing" around a cactus and getting stuck. She thought she would be safe because she wasn't touching it. Unfortunately her dancing took her close enough to the cactus, and she did end up with a few spines in her palm.

As I re-read the devotion, I thought about a lesson I learned years ago by "dancing around" sin and finding myself sucked in. It happened in my first job after college. I had gone to school for writing and public relations, and ended up taking a job where I had great PR responsibilities, but I also had secretarial tasks thrown in - like answering the phones and typing letters.

It was a small but growing company, led by a very dynamic woman, who was very detail oriented. When she asked me to do something, she stayed on top of me. As an aside note - that was before we had any technology to speak of, so she ran this multi-million dollar company with a yellow legal pad.

I soon found myself in over my head. I was trying to write and organize special events, and then I'd get asked to make phone calls or type a report. It was very difficult, and I was often behind on my boss's schedule. So when she'd call me in to her office to get an update on something, I found myself giving her answers that weren't the full truth. For instance, if I'd only started a project, I might say I was "making progress." This continued for quite awhile, all the time, I knew I wasn't being fully truthful.

This came to a head when my boss asked me to lie to someone else about the status of a project she was working on. I wouldn't do it. God used that situation to fully shine light on my own "dancing around a cactus." I knew I had been sinning.

This issue is one that I continually face. I'm often behind on my schedule, and find myself wanting to give an excuse, blaming it on something outside of my control. I still struggle inside my heart, but God frequently reminds me of that incident at my first job. With God's help, I speak the full truth, even if I look forgetful or unorganized.

Obviously, that's just one way we dance around sin. It's a dangerous dance, and one that most of us do at one time or another. Unfortunately, we have an enemy who twists truth and can bring confusion in our own minds about what is sin. I pray God reveals danger to you far in advance of you getting stuck.

In Christ's love,

Glynnis