Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday: Small Temptations, Big Consequences

Last September I completed the Shop-Not Project: 365 days without shopping for clothes, shoes or accessories – a major challenge for this Paris Hilton protégé.

Throughout that long year I was tempted to cheat, but surprisingly, it wasn’t the big-ticket items that nearly undid me. I didn’t pine (much) after the Coach purses or the Vera Wang wedges. Instead, it was the small, seemingly innocuous temptations that threated to derail the project. In fact, I nearly destroyed nine months of not shopping with a single pair of $9.99 Target flip-flops. I shuffled around the store with those tag-bound flip-flops on my feet for a full 20 minutes before I reluctantly returned them to the rack.

The truth is, falling prey to small temptations can have big, long-lasting consequences.

Take Eve, for example. After listening to the serpent’s rationalization for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the Bible simply reports that she “was convinced.” Genesis 3:6 goes on to say this:

“She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.” (NLT)

Can’t you hear Eve’s justification, her rationale for eating the fruit? “It’s just a piece of fruit; what’s the big deal? I’m only going to eat one…what could possibly happen from one piece of fruit?”

On the surface, it’s a small temptation, a small sin: simple act of disobedience. But as we well know, it was a small temptation with tremendous, eternal consequences.

Think about the minor sins we’re tempted to commit every day. Maybe it’s office gossip. Or an email flirtation. Maybe it’s fudging the numbers a tiny bit on your expense report. Or yelling at your kids. Just like Eve’s fruit, these temptations, these sins, don’t seem so dire on the surface. Yet each has the potential to lead to even greater sin and grave repercussions.

As I stood in the shoe aisle of Target with those $9.99 flip flops on my feet, I didn’t consider the potential fall-out that might result from the purchase. I wanted them, and they were easy to justify. Now, though, I can see how those plastic flip-flops may not have been such a small, silly temptation after all.  I suspect if I’d walked out of Target with those flip flops in hand, they would have made the next tempting purchase easier to justify, too.

Can you think of a small temptation you’re wrestling with right now that might lead to bigger consequences down the line?  What’s one thing you might do to resist such temptations in the future?

And before I forget...the winner of the God of All Comfort gift basket from last week's drawing is Amanda Sakovitz! Amanda, please email me your mailing address so Donna can send you your gift!

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