Sister Patti Tippetts
Primary Music Leader
Rules and standards are created for one reason or another. Usually these reasons have much to do with keeping us and others safe. When we see a red light, that doesn’t mean slow down and go through the intersection slowly while hoping no one hits you. When there are barricades on a road to stop us from using the road, that doesn’t mean proceed and see if you are lucky enough not to fall off a cliff or get crushed by falling rocks. When we see a sign warning us not to swim at a beach because of jelly fish or sharks, that doesn’t mean go ahead and swim and hope you don’t get hurt. There are many signs and warnings in our lives that help us remain safe…if we are willing to pay attention.
God has given us commandments for the same reason—to keep us safe and help us return to heaven to be with Him, because He loves us.
Heeding the commandments is like following safety warnings. But Satan is very clever. He knows we know right from wrong, and he knows that it would be difficult for him to tempt us to do very big wrong things. So, he is sneaky and he tries to persuade us to do little things that seem only a little bit wrong. This is his way of getting us to ‘climb over the fence’ that is supposed to keep us out of the danger zone. He might lead us to believe that we can get in the shark infested water just a little bit, because sharks are too big to come in that shallow water. But if he can get us into the water, he can get us to be careless enough to put us in danger of the sharks. Likewise, he tries to convince us that telling little lies to stay out of trouble is okay, that being unkind is alright because someone was mean and they deserve it, or not obeying your parents is fine as long as they don’t find out. These are Satan’s way of putting you in the danger zone of being careless and then eventually making bigger and more serious mistakes.
We sometimes feel like those little bad choices don’t matter much, but once we let our guard down and think it’s okay, we might start doing those things more and more.
Last summer our faucet out back developed a little drip. It wasn’t much, just a drip here and a drop there. And besides, it was hot and they would dry up almost as quickly as they fell. It would be difficult to fix the drip and so…we didn’t. Then we got careless and forgot about it almost entirely. It dripped day after day, night after night, all summer long. And that seemed okay, it wasn’t hurting anything, right? Eventually, as is the case every year, summer turned to fall and fall to winter, and the long-forgotten drip just kept on drip drip dropping. However, now that the weather had cooled, the drips no longer evaporated instantly away; they began to form a tiny trickle that inconspicuously drizzled off the concrete and onto the soil, where it soaked, unobserved, into the ground.
One day, deep in the cold winter months, I stepped into our storage room that is against the back wall of the house. My foot felt unusually cold, and a little…wet. I looked down. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I took another step and felt the same cold, wet sensation on the other foot. I looked down again. I still didn’t see anything peculiar. But I wondered. So, I pressed down on the flooring with my toes. Sure enough, a small drop of water bubbled out between the flooring slats. I stepped to the side a little and pushed down again. The same thing happened; a little drop of water bubbled out again. I moved once more and tried the same experiment, and got the same result. From where was this water coming? I suddenly became very alarmed as I continued pressing down and more water emerged. I quickly recognized that the water covered a much larger area than I had originally surmised, and I began to take note of the damage that had been happening unnoticed for several weeks, if not months. The walls were soaking up water, the door frame was wet several inches up the wall, the flooring was curling up at the seams, and the boxes on the floor were…well, let’s say, the wrong color (they were beginning to mold). But what was most puzzling at that moment was--where was all this water coming from?!
I promptly found Lee and we began investigating. I first examined the water storage bottles. They were intact. We then inspected the water heater. It was fine. Lee suddenly had an inkling. He darted swiftly out the door and around the house. He returned only a few moments later with the news…it was the leaky faucet. It had dripped so many seemingly harmless “little” drops of water that they had entirely soaked the ground right near the back wall of our house and were coming through some insignificant crack. Now all those small drops had become an ominous and expensive problem. We ended up needing to tear out some of the wall, sheetrock, and framing, and all of the flooring. The boxes and their content had to be discarded (some of my treasured childhood books). And it was heart-breaking and a lot of hard work.
Like this story of little drops becoming a big issue, we need to be on the alert at all times to keep Satan from tempting us to commit small sins so that he can lead us into greater sin. Figuratively, stay on the safe side of the fence, heed the warning signs, and push away temptations to give-in to small sins. You can do it!
I’ve been hoping to see more of you posting Primary songs you’ve sung with your families. You can still do that. I bet there are more people that would enjoy that as much as I would! In the meantime, here are some songs you could sing to help you make good choices when temptations come along.
Much love,
Sis T
Here are some more songs you could practice:
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