Let go of the shovel

Why is it that sometimes we find ourselves in the pit of temptation or suffering and we blatently choose sin?---or maybe another, and probably better question(s) is, why do we sometimes sin, and not know it?----why does it take us witnessing the consequences of our sin, mainly seeing its effect on other people--usually those that we're closest to, before we come to the realization, "Hey, maybe what I did was wrong?" i believe 100% that it should never take us seeing how our words or actions have hurt someone else for us to come to that realization. However, i do know that the Lord uses that quite often to discipline his children because, most of the time, we just don't get it; we choose not to get it--pride. The thing is, there is never sin, without temptation. Temptation precedes sin. Even for the unbeliever that is held captive by their sin--there's always temptation before their wrongdoings--they just fail to realize it because of the scales that are covering their eyes. So what does the presence of temptation mean? It means hope, it means love, it means that you don't have to do whatever it is that you're about to do. Experiencing temptation is the last resort that our Father takes to keep us from doing wrong--it is a TANGIBLE interceding in our lives by the Holy Spirit that says, "BJ, I love you My son. It's not wrong of you to be tempted--I too was tempted. But through Me, you can overcome this and walk in freedom." Some may disagree and say that sometimes there isn't any temptation, but i would say to them... How could the Lord offer a way out of every situation (which He does) if that were the case? However, temptation is dangerous. i feel it could be described as the "middle ground" between death and freedom. And sometimes, we do give in--if we don't know Jesus, if we lose sight of the cross, or if we never really embraced the fact that we actually have the Holy Spirit living IN US, and the only way that it got there is through an amazingly indescribable Man, that overcame the temptation of all sin, yet placed all of that very sin on Himself so that in the very moment that we're facing that tempting decision, we can say, "This really might hurt them if i say it so i'm not going to," "This will probably turn me away from the Lord if i do that, i'm not going to do that," "Hey yall, i know we feel like we're able to drive and i know it's only a short distance home, but can we just take a taxi to be on the safe side--i would hate for one of us to get hurt or even worse, for someone else to," "My body is purified by the Spirit and it's a temple of God; we will not do that," and you could probably think of many others. Even though temptation is a sign of love and care from the Lord, it's still--as i said earlier, extremely dangerous because when it hits us, we're already walking on a thin layer of ice. We must do everything we can to prevent putting ourselves in tempting situations. We can't reason with ourselves that we will not give in to temptation everytime we face it because many times we will, and that's definitely not a reason to just forget about it or overlook it either.
Can we just embrace ourselves the way the Lord has embraced us? Can we look at ourselves and others through Holy eyes? Can we encourage and pray for those that have wronged us? Can we just say, "i'm sorry," or "Thank you," or "i really appreciate you" (as small as that may seem, it can have huge impact on another person)---why do we have to tear each other down and wound ourselves the process? Can we learn what it means to live in the truth of "You are forgiven, go and sin no more." i don't know about you, but to me, that seems like the most appealing thing. i'm definitely not perfect, i struggle, i'm a sinner. But that isn't what defines me and it isn't what defines you. We are defined by the cross. Perfection is not attainable here on earth, but i feel that we should at least try to be--the way that Jesus exemplified perfection. And in our trying, we must embrace the fact that we will fail. Just because we will never be perfect should not keep us from trying to be--or to put it another way, just because we know that we will fail should not keep us from trying to be. Failing should never seem attractive. However, if we are striving for perfection in life without realizing how imperfect we are, we will make that conquest only about ourself, which makes everything worse and also makes it difficult to approach the Lord when we do fail. Embracing our imperfection leads to humility and keeps our heart open to His voice and His guidance. You and i are loved unconditionally by the Savior of the world; what's not to love about that?

And....i kind of got off on a tangent with this post; it totally went in a different direction than i had intended. What i wanted to write about originally was similar, but quite different. So, i guess i'll have to save that one until next time.