My recent check up with the doctor revealed that my cholesterol is back up. He advised that I change my diet in order to get it back into normal range. So, I've been watching what I eat and walking.
Today, my co-worker walked by my office headed to the reception area and said, "You gonna get a doughnut?"
"Doughnuts? What doughnuts? I didn't know there were doughnuts in the office..." I responded as I sipped my strawberry flavored diet nutrition drink.
Then the person announcing there were delicious doughnuts to everyone saw us talking and said to my co-worker, "You getting a doughnut?"
Then I chimed in, "You didn't tell me we have doughnuts ... my feelings are hurt."
"I was trying to save you from the temptation. I know you're trying to lose weight." She apologized with a grin.
"Oh, I see. Thanks for thinking of my diet!" I laughed. "Well, I still would have liked the invite even though I wouldn't have eaten one."
They laughed and rushed to the dwindling box of doughnuts to pick out the good ones before they were all gone and I tossed my empty diet drink container into the trash can.
After they left, I finished my filing and pondered my reaction to not being invited to the doughnut party going on in the reception area. My feelings really were slightly hurt. I would have liked to have been invited even though she truly was trying to help me out by keeping me from the temptation.
It was then that I had a bit of a revelation as I realized that what I really wanted wasn't the doughnut but the invitation to temptation.
I wanted to be invited to be tempted to do something I shouldn't be doing. Plus, it hurt my feelings that I didn't get the invite. How FLESHY is that?
I have faced many temptations in my life but I've never considered the idea that I liked it. That I wanted to be tempted.
This is just a story about a doughnut that I didn't get to eat today and there are much worse temptations but it was very revealing.
Recognizing the reaction of my flesh to 'invitations to temptations' will surely make me more aware of what the issue really is the next time I face a serious temptation in life.
Maybe the issue is ... me.
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)