Our SLIDING SLIPPERY Scale of SIN

My little boy to the far left, on the BIG slide at the State Fair w/ his cousin who is in the lead !

I started considering the sliding, escalating scale of sin the other day when I was telling my husband what I was making for dinner. I am not a gourmet cook by any means, pretty simple and basic is what I do best, and I try to make everything healthy ...unlike my husband who could care less if something is healthy.

He just likes to eat, no fuss about it.

I always fuss about it being healthy, while he mainly just stares at me with an annoyed look.

Don't care, I'm going to make him eat healthy if it kills him to do so, figuratively speaking of course. 

So, I was in the backyard, about to take our looney-tune killer of a black lab for her nightly walk, and I stopped him as he was going into his workshop. I said, " I have some chicken breasts, I am going to make them on the stove with some onion and garlic, celery, spices, and then baked sweet potatoes, and some steamed broccoli , to go with it. "
Very healthy.

He looks at me and goes ' OK. "

No excitement, but not unpleasant...just OK.

I then look back at him and and say, " Oh...and I'm making some brownies for dessert. "

That cheered him up, he smiled , and walked off.

As we were eating later, I told him on my walk ....I always think about lessons God teaches me, insights He shows me...always on my walks.

I told him , as we were eating our healthy meal together, I told him that what I said....about all the stuff we were going to get to eat...that it was healthy and good for us...and that since we were doing so good in that way...that we could throw a little sin , or brownies at the end ( by the way I do NOT think brownies are sinful, just an analogy )...and we would still be doing or eating good.

Adding to our lives by eating or rather by doing GOOD.

Balancing the scale of good and bad.

Then just a smidgen of bad ,like the brownies, won't hurt us.

He just looks at me and raises his eyebrow. Like, " What have you been up to ?"

I tell him that we ALL, everyone of us has that unfounded, unbiblical notion, that God has a giant scale, and he weighs and balances our lives and our actions, and that if He thinks the good outweighs the bad that we are doing..

then we slide into heaven and gain His pleasure still.

Some people may consider areas of their lives that they are doing spectacular in, where we believe God is giving us a nod of approval...and then turning a blind eye to our behavior He does not approve of. Some people just believe that if the good always outweighs the bad, then they'll slide right into heaven, get a bunch of jewels in their crown, and God will say , " Well done, good and faithful servant. "

Sort of how we judge our fellow man, we know them, we know their faults and their good points, and we can say often that the good outweighs the bad.

I guess the problem that I see, or wonder about, is sometimes the bad is much ' heavier' , heavier to God than we realize. Also sin is a very , very slippery little monster...it appears in subtle ways, it can become insidious or innocuous,  a very tricky element that is in this world that can destroy us , our careers, our families, our souls.

The big problem here is we humans, we have not got a clue about how God judges our actions, our lives. We think we do, but when you really try to figure it out...I think we believe He judges us how we judge ourselves and each other. 

I'm not a betting woman, but I bet we're probably wrong.

I know from painful past experiences of myself and others , that sometimes that second serving of cake, that second glance, that second flirtatious comment, that second ignoring of a need of a loved one, that second ignored warning in our conscience, that second spreading of some salacious gossip, that second lie we tell...so many seconds that we hesitate and do the wrong thing.
Many people do not stop at seconds either.

Choices to sin or not to sin.

The Bible is not a book that is about being a perfect Christian , or a perfect person. As that is unattainable. But it does give direction for our lives, it does give clear directions and crystal clear blunt warnings as well.

I know I have ignored some ( many ), of those explicit warnings before, as my own sliding scale of measuring my own sin...has made me turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to God's word.

The thing that I am slowly, and I mean verrrryyyy slowly , starting to learn is that all that is written in the Bible,

All of it,

is simply God teaching us about living a good life, an honorable life, a ' pure in heart ' life.

All of it is because He loves us, more than we can ever comprehend. 

A huge lesson I learned a few years ago, and it is a lesson that I still have not grasped hold of with proper enthusiasm or conviction is :

" If your happiness comes at the expense of someone else's  happiness, then you will not have true joy."

The big clincher here is, whether that person knows about it ( our sin ), or not.

That does not matter. 

Wish someone had told me that when I was very young , not that TRUTH , prevails in our  hearts or minds anyway.
Life is usually all about ' Me " for most of us anyway...I know it has been for myself.
Working on changing that daily.

We are all a stubborn lot aren't we ?

I hope you have a good day, I hope you consider your own slippery scale , and I hope you know God loves you more than anyone ever could,

Many blessings,

Gina

Me and my love bug swinging at the zoo

" But he who does the truth comes to the light , that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they be done in God. " John 3:21