While dedandelioning my yard I was smitten with how beautiful they are. Not only do they have that lovely yellow blossom, the white orb of seeds is great fun to blow into the wind. If it were not for those not so beautiful leaves and the plant’s veracious hunger to consume our lawns we would most likely purchase packs of seeds each spring. They remind me of the alcohol commercials I see during football games. Beautiful horses pull spectacular looking wagons down gorgeous country roads. Handsome young men are shown singing and laughing as they mingle with incredible looking women. It looks so good and so inviting. We are enticed to believe we too can be like those happy people if we would only drink their product. They, of course, never show the destroyed lives and livers, the broken homes, the abused children, the smashed cars and the lost careers.
Solomon nailed it when he wrote, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Sin is anything that ultimately harms us or others. Many activities start off looking so very good. If they didn’t they wouldn’t be an issue. However, they do look good. Especially when we are young and adventurous we don’t understand why we cannot experience all that life seems to offer. In defense of teens I must point out that the frontal lobes of our brains, where we do our best logical thinking in regard to right and wrong, don’t actually fully mature until their early twenties. Often by then our behaviors are already in place and most difficult to change.
But we must not despair. There is nothing too difficult for God. He will, upon our request, struggle with us to dedandelion us.
Written by Roger Bothwell on May 7, 2013
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org