Why Wait? So it's a few days before Christmas and all the presets are out. It's four in the morning and everyone is asleep but you. What do you do? Do you go and carefully, with the skill of a trained spy, unwrap the presents and peek at what you'll be getting this year? Or do you count how many presents are yours and shake then to see if they are any good? Or! Are you the type that waits with glee in their bed each night, simply knowing that there is something under that tree for you somewhere.
I was always the type to shake the present and count how many I would be getting. I would shake and feel and look at all my pretties, but never peek(unless my sister convinced me otherwise). Later on in life I'm finding that I'm a bit of the unwrapping type...in quite a few aspects of my life. Maybe I'm just not good at waiting anymore. I mean, I'm quite impressionable. It never took much prodding from my sister to get me to completely open my presents in the past(presents she would then neglect to help me put back together as expertly as she could).
Here I am again with a chance to "open a well wrapped present" before its intended time. I'm faced with the question "why wait?" And I must admit it was a struggle to come up with a good reason. Forgiveness provides a lovely out for those who seek it. And yet, fear makes a greater barrier than some morals.
Temptation, I'm no stranger to its lure, but this is the first time in my life that its taken such energy out of me just trying to fight it off. Opportunity after opportunity pop up and I crawl away from each trial exhausted. Each time with a little less resolve to fight the next time. But like I said, it was hard for me to come up for a reason to wait. However, I did find a reason.
"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." (1 Corinthians 6:18-20 NIV)
Even then I looked at this and tried to find a way around it. Like, look at the things I eat, the things I watch, the things I say. But somehow, this is different. And yes, what you've done in your mind you've done in your heart as well(and my mind has been busy), but still this is different.
It's like one last act, one last part of me I haven't tossed away. Waiting this long then giving it all away...I would be so upset with myself. Like getting within view of the finish line and phoning it in.
It's somewhat easy to say all this now, while I'm able to think clearly and voice my resolve. But in the moment, when tempted...ugh...I need prayer...
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