One afternoon I was rooting around the kitchen looking for a snack and discovered my husband’s secret stash of Oreo cookies. There was a reason he’d hidden them—I had a tendency to eat up all the goodies before he could have any. So when I found them, I was kind of mad. I took six of them and popped them in my mouth, one after the other, thinking, “There! Serves you right for trying to hide cookies from me!”
The next thing you know, my husband’s car pulled into the driveway. I was horrified. You know Oreo cookies—they have a distinct smell and are a little dusty to eat. So there I was—reeking of chocolate and a real mess, thinking, “Oh God, I’m caught. Please help me!” It wasn’t my best prayer. But it was the best I could come up with under the circumstances.
I heard an internal voice say: “Go into your office and open your Bible. He never bothers you when you are reading your Bible.” So I did. I high-tailed it into the office and flipped open the Bible to a random page. When I looked down, I read:
“Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness” (Proverbs 30:20).
Who was I fooling?
You might think I felt embarrassed or caught. In fact, I’d never felt so loved. Just that week I’d been studying a Christian Science Bible Lesson that included references to adultery, including the forgiveness and healing of an adulterous woman (see John 8:1–11), and several general condemnations of adulterous behavior (see Exodus 20:14; Jeremiah 7:8–10; Matthew 5:27, 28). I remembered thinking how I abhorred the idea of adultery and that this particular Bible Lesson, although interesting, had very little to do with me.
So when this message of what constituted adulterous behavior was brought home to me, instead of feeling condemned, I felt that God loved me enough to expose the contrast between my secret thoughts and acts and my true and good nature. I was inadvertently committing adultery against my own true self! But instead of condemnation, I felt loved. And from the awareness of that love sprang the spiritual strength and discipline necessary to refuse to be manipulated anymore by sneaky, dishonest, cheating thoughts.
My husband and I had a good laugh about it. And this little episode brought an end to a sneak-thief problem I’d had with food. I also recognized that no matter what we’ve done or need to stop doing, condemnation is not the way out. Love, and a clear view of who we really are as God’s child, is the best solution. In some way God is telling you right now that you are good. Believe it, because it is true. And nothing can prevent that truth from being fully exposed and finally expressed in your life.
Paris, France
