Lame Lines and Guarded Hearts
Our ladies Bible class gathered around a table in the local pizza parlor after class last Wednesday. Surprisingly the conversation turned to particularly interesting encounters with men — not husbands, but other men.
I decided to tell a recent story of my own that I thought about sharing with you soon after it happened. I’m glad I waited because I collected a couple more at the table on Wednesday.
A few days before Christmas, Ray dropped me off at a department store to pick up a package while he did another errand. I browsed the store after I accomplished my pick-up. Finding nothing of interest, I sat down in a chair near the entrance and waited for my husband. Beside me was an empty chair. Beside it was a little girl.
Soon a scraggly older man came toward us, saying, “I’m going to sit down here between two pretty ladies.” Oh, me. Then, he turned to me with a question: “Is your husband still living?”
Oh, me, again. Believe me, I wasn’t tempted, but — really! Do you think a line like that would make me interested?
Another lady at the pizza parlor told of a similar incident. A man asked a friend of hers the same question that man asked me. Then, he said, “I’ve got a bunch of money in the bank.”
Her quick and wise reply was: “I’m happy for you.”
Our stories prompted another story from the other end of the table. Again it involved a friend of the storyteller. The friend and the friend’s husband were together at a mall. The friend jabbered away. When she began to walk away, still jabbering, she reached over to take her husband’s hand. After a short while, she looked over at the man whose hand she held — and it was not her husband!
“You’re not my husband!” she exclaimed.
“That could be arranged,” he replied.
While recognizing that each of these men is a person made in God’s image and a person God loves, I must confess that I laughed until tears rolled out of my eyes at these surprising stories.
However, after I experienced my “Is your husband still living?” moment, I thought about a warning I want to give to all of you. I know you love your children. One of the best ways you can love them is to guard your heart. None of us is immune to Satan’s flaming darts that he throws to pull us away from God, from our children, from our husbands.
I know that some affairs begin when people decide to go looking for them. However, many start when people are completely unaware. I doubt that any of you would be lured away by one of those lame lines in the stories we shared in the pizza parlor, but we all must guard our hearts closely to be immune from the subtle temptations that can catch us unaware and seep inside when our hearts are weary and weak.
Once, while Ray’s dad was living with us, he was in the car when I dropped Ray off at work. “I love you,” I told Ray.
Ray’s dad said to me, “Keep loving him.”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told His disciples:
Keep watching and praying
that you may not enter into temptation;
the spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak.
Matthew 26:41
His advice to them is powerful for us in any circumstance. We should keep it close while we remember that Jesus also said:
God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother,
and the two shall become one flesh;
so they are no longer two, but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together,
let no man separate.
Mark 10:6-9
I actually had an older man catch up with me when I was mall-walking one morning. He matched my stride and began some idle small talk, and then he asked. “Would your husband mind if I flirted with you?” I replied rather loudly, “He certainly would!” and quickened my pace. Ugh! I love to walk at the mall, but there are a few walkers there that make me shudder!
Oh, me!!