I am a visual person. I love color and patterns. I’m like a toddler, throw some color my way and you have my immediate attention.
I was scrolling the other day and an ad popped up for a classy brand of nail polish. The bright colors and sparkly glitter caught my eye. The headline further announced that they were having a five-dollar sale. All the beautiful polishes were on sale, some for more than half off!
Well, that sealed the deal, color, sparkle, AND a sale? Sign me up and take my money!
I pushed on the ad and was immediately surrounded by hues of gorgeousness. There were blues and pinks and reds, greens and browns and purples. As I delved deeper, I found glitters, mattes and even breathable polish! I didn’t even know what that meant, but suddenly, I NEEDED it.
I spent the next five minutes happily choosing colors. I popped some in my cart and the site announced that I was only twelve dollars away from free shipping. Free shipping? Of course I want that. I added more to my cart.
I was so excited and even a bit giddy. Whereas ten minutes earlier I was content with the polishes I had at home, I was now convinced I NEEDED these new colors. My old colors had become boring in the few minutes that had passed since I first saw the sale ad.
As I pushed buttons to complete my sale, the total kept climbing. Somehow this five-dollar sale had turned into a fifty-five-dollar amount due. What happened? How had I gone from a contented woman relaxing in a chair, to a frenzied shopper who had to have shiny new polishes in multiple colors to be happy?
I had been taken in by glitz and sparkle. Thankfully, I woke up from my buyers’ trance when I saw the crazy total and I did not complete the sale. However, I did sit with my mouth open for a bit when I realized how close I had come to spending fifty-five bucks on some silly nail polish. What was wrong with me?!
Well, it turns out that I am not alone. For example:
God created an amazing garden for Adam and Eve and provided them with everything they could possibly need. God had only one simple rule and yet Eve saw something bright and shiny in a tree that she “just had to have”. As we all know, that impulse “buy” did not end well.
The Israelites had GOD leading them to the promised land, and yet they lost faith and created a shiny gold idol (also didn’t end well). They were given manna every day, bread from heaven, to sustain them. Soon though, manna became boring, and they wanted something better.
Likewise, David already had wives, but he wanted the new, pretty lady (Bathsheba) that he saw bathing and that caused him to sin.
When we read the Bible, we see countless examples of times God’s people were dissatisfied and wanted more. And don’t we often read with our mouths open and wonder how people could be so blind? Why couldn’t they see the danger of wanting “more than” what God had provided. I used to shake my head and think that I would certainly never do such things.
Many years have passed since my early years of studying The Word. Now, as I read, a voice next to me always whispers, “You would have been tempted to do the exact same things.” It’s a humbling thought.
I was reminded of that fact as I sat with my credit card in my hand, feeling ashamed and chagrined. A bit of color and glitz had taken away my better judgement in a matter of minutes. I was no longer satisfied with the countless blessings I already had in my life (AND the countless bottles of nail polish). A flash of color had planted the seed of desire in my brain, and it had quickly taken over any logic and contentment my brain contained.
The older I get, the less self-satisfied I am. I now realize how much I still need to learn, and I see my foibles more clearly. As I read and study today, I am reminded of these words:
“There, but for the grace of God, go I.” (*see note below)
I know my human tendencies are alive and well (sadly) and they can crop up at any moment.
And that, dear friend, is why I am in need of a savior.
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:15-16
(*The phrase: “there but for the grace of God go I” is attributed to John Bradford who said it upon seeing people being led to their execution in 1553. Two years later, Bradford himself was executed for heresy. He was a protestant living in Roman Catholic England.)
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