“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” (Luke 16:10 NLT)
It all started with a single potato chip...I was doing really well with my New Year’s resolutions. I had gone weeks without indulging in junk food. Then, as we were watching TV together, my husband offered me some potato chips. I figured I would just eat just a few. No big deal. This wouldn’t really count as cheating on my diet since it was just a snack. Unfortunately, the chips were just a gateway drug. In a few days, I was eating pizza, muffins, and cookies.
It’s easy to justify being unfaithful in little things. We minimize it--telling ourselves that what we are doing is inconsequential. We waste a little time; we indulge a tiny bad habit; we lie by omission; we exaggerate a bit when telling jokes; we avoid having awkward conversations in order to keep the peace. We let things slide. We relax our standards. We excuse our behavior as insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
It’s only a matter of time before we start to rationalize higher levels of degeneracy. Personal integrity slowly erodes as we become more and more tolerant of artificiality. Soon everything good is washed away, leaving a wasteland of depravity.
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