The other morning when I opened the refrigerator, realized I had no yogurt and I burst into tears.
My emotional breakdown was much deeper than my genuine disappointed at being out of yogurt. While I love yogurt and eat it every single day for lunch, rarely does a lack of yogurt warrant tears. No it was much deeper than that. Being out of yogurt was the last straw.
I had been running on autopilot for several days and hadn’t noticed that my yogurt supply was dangerously low. I had spent my whole weekend busy and didn’t have time to go to the grocery store. We were running low on stuff for breakfast, dinner and lunch. I had spent too much time that particular morning looking for things because my house was a mess; I was going to be late for work. My inability to handle the fact that I was out of yogurt was a culmination of many little things.
I think sin creeps up on us the same way. There are many little things we do (or don’t do) that we don’t think of as a big deal. But over time these little things build and swell…slowly turning into big things. A little overindulgence here or there turns into a full out binge. A bit of harmless flirting evolves into an affair. A careless occasional sarcastic remark wears a groove that results in genuine hurt feelings.
Being a strong Christian isn’t always about being a warrior. Sometimes you have to be a sentry. A sentry is “A soldier stationed to keep guard or to control access to a place.” (dictionary.com). It’s important that we control access to our most important places: our hearts, our souls, and our mental well being. Allowing yourself to cruise on autopilot or neglect the little things for too long will create bigger problems later.
