what are your innermost intentions?

Have you ever stubbed your toe on a big "something," be it a bedpost, a rock or whatever else gets in the way? It gets your attention real quick, doesn't it? Something so big usually does.

How about this: have you ever gone for a walk and had a very tiny pebble make its way into your shoe? You try to shake it to dislodge it, but it still moves around in there, annoying you until finally you take off your shoe and remove it. How can something so tiny bother you so much? Maybe you walked quite a distance with that tiny grain of almost insignificant nothing rubbing against your toes until you finally bothered to do something about it.

It's the same way with Sin. We all know about the Big Sins: lying, stealing, murder, adultery. They are all very well explained in the Ten Commandments. We want to stay away from those, because we know the consequences. But then there are the many, many tiny little sins that we do, sometimes without even thinking about it. At first, they don't cause us any huge amount of grief...but if we continue to walk in sin(s), like that tiny pebble in your shoe, it can cause huge heartaches down the road.

I know of a teenager who justifies his wrong actions by telling the adults in his life to butt out, that if they would just let him "do what he wants to do, he'll be better off." But better off, how? When we are doing something sinful, we tend to justify it. We reason with ourselves as to why we should do it, then we argue with ourselves as to why it was warranted in the first place. It can be something so small as pocketing extra change when you have been overpaid. Maybe it's taking a stack of copier paper from work. After all, who would be the wiser, correct? We work hard, we pay taxes, we DESERVE that bit of "reward!" We may even brag to another of our "deed." But, just as with the pebble in our shoe, constantly overlooking our wrongdoings can lead to blisters in our lives that, if not treated, will cause an infection. Then the "fun" really begins! Soon we begin to accept that it is just the way we are, it is the way to be...we can handle whatever comes our way, or any of a million other reasons why we have chosen that path.

It is said that it takes about three weeks to develop a good habit. It can be exercising, dieting or anything else. Three weeks. By then it becomes a part of our daily routine. I'd also like to think of it this way: it takes some time to also get used to doing things in a wrong fashion, always telling ourselves that overall, it is OK. Soon we may become unaware of our actions, just doing it without even thinking about it.  There are people who suffer from chronic daily pain. If you were to ask them how they are, they will probably say, "fine," and leave it at that. They are not feeling fine, but because they have lived with the pain for so long, it is just a part of the life as they know it. They have a higher tolerance of pain, until unless they really think about it.  On the pain scale from one to ten, maybe for them a seven is not so bad, whereas you may think a four is absolute misery.

So it is with sin. Daily we should do a check of our conscience: who have I hurt today through my words or inactions/actions? Is there some other way I could have said/did anything? Was I tempted to take what wasn't mine? It could even have been 43 minutes on a paid lunch break that is supposed to be only 30 minutes long. You have stolen not only company time, but other employees have had to fill in for you. See how subtle it can be? And how did you justify that? "oh, my watch was running slow, traffic was bad, I had a sudden phone call?....See?

This is the only life we have, just this. You may justify to yourself how you have lived it, but God knows your heart. He knows of your intentions. May all of your intents be honest ones.