Peer Pressure and Flying Carpets

Recently, we went to the Clark County Fair. I Love The Fair!

The sights. – the flashing lights, the carousel horses, the smiles on all the faces…
The smells. – popcorn, fried foods, horse barns…
The sounds. – pounding music, people laughing,
The FOOD! – funnel cakes, french fries, candy apples, cotton candy, elephant ears, corn dogs, taffy, lemon shake ups, (ok – the food is my favorite)

So – we took all the kids to the fair. And we invited my brother in law, Jordan and is new wife, Loramy to go with us. I love Loramy. She is peppy, and vibrant, she has a zeal for living. She loves the rides at the fair. In fact she rode several with my kids, and I loved watching her have a good time.

I enjoy watching, but I don’t ride.  I mean, I can ride, but it makes me horribly sick.  It was after I had my first baby that I realized something had changed, and I could no longer fly in circles and walk away from it.  And I was fine with that, I love watching!

Loramy is not a watcher. She is a do-er.  And she is a persuasive do-er.  SO – to make a long story short – she convinced me to get on the puke machine known as the flying carpet.  And it flew in great big circles until I was so sick I couldn’t walk.

After that one ride, I no longer loved my fair.

The smells – ugh! the nauseating smells.
The lights – oh! just turn them off!
The sounds – TOO loud!  Stop! Can’t you see I’m sick!
AND THE FOOD! – oh WHY did I eat that funnel cake and vinegar fries….

Here’s where the “devotional tie in” comes in.

You see – I knew the right thing to do.  I knew if I got on that ride I would be sick on the bathroom floor all night (I was).  But I had this sweet looking girl telling me “just one ride”  And I wanted to impress her, and I wanted her to like me.  I wanted to be able to ride the rides with the same abandon as Loramy.

How often do we struggle to fit in?  How many times have I KNOWN the right thing to do and brushed it under the rug, just to be haunted by that decision later?  And that devil!  He’s crafty!  He knows how to lure you in, how to make something look innocent and sweet, then pull the old “bait and switch”.  How easy it is for him to entice us into a string of bad decisions,  and the uncomfortable outcome can haunt us for eternity.

I find myself very often feeling like Paul.  He writes in Romans- 7:18 – “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I never carry it out.  For I do not do the good I have in mind, but the evil thing instead.  This I keep doing!”

And that night, I thought this verse over and over, “why did I do that!  I knew better! oh I AM SO SICK!”  The good news is, making one bad decision doesn’t often result in a permanent consequence.  I got over my motion sickness, and learned a lesson.  And the better news is that God understands our internal war of “knowing the good” but “doing the evil”.  And God is there with his open arms to comfort us and forgive.

My encouragement is this:  Have the desire to do good.  For every one “bad” you do, strive for two “goods”.  Don’t give up the fight.  You cannot lose if you don’t stop fighting.