"Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel."
Proverbs 20:17
I was watching conference today, which I always love because there is so much great advice, and really simple things said plainly about how we can improve. When I came across this, it felt similar to me. Deceit can seem sweet at first, very convenient, getting around consequences or effort, or making yourself look better, or whatever it is... lying can often temporarily make things sweet. But kind of like fruit stripe gum, the sweetness doesn't last long.
Kind of simplistic example from grad school... went to a ward activity where they played a get-to-know-you game (the beginning of the semester always brought a lot of new people). We had to go around the room and find people who could fulfil different things on a kind of scavenger hunt sheet. One that no one seemed to be able to answer was something like "find someone who has lived in a place beginning with E." That was the last blank one of my more-outgoing friends needed, so I signed it, based on living in Eugene, Oregon for a few days on vacation once. :) Fair, right? ... He turned it in, and then all of these other people came over to get me to sign because they needed that blank too, and then at the end of the day some other girl, who apparently really did live in Eugene at once point, came up and started gushing about it, saying it was so cool that I had lived there, and whatever, and I just deflected, smiling and saying that I really liked it there, and just bailing... perhaps unintentional / indirect deceit, but deceit nonetheless.
Honestly, though, I thought that was the end of it, but a few weeks later some of her friends came to town and she introduced one of them to me because he had lived in Eugene as well. Then she walked off. I am not sure what was going on there, but maybe she was trying to set us up? A really cool, nice guy was there, asking me about Eugene, and I just told him the truth... I loved it, but I wasn't from there, and had only been there for a short time. That kind of killed the conversation and later she came over to accuse me of lying to her when I said that I had lived in Eugene. I could tell that I had embarrassed her, and she wanted me to admit it in front of him so that it was my fault and not hers. So, I took it on the chin and didn't try to weasel out, but wow... for something that seemed so innocent, that was an ugly aftertaste for me. I was embarassed and it was kind of lose-lose all around.
That's a very small example, but I think that actually almost all sin is like that... just sometimes on a much larger scale. Often we break God's commandments because we can't understand why they exist, or because it just doesn't seem like a big deal... but they are there for our protection, and later we always find out how those things harm our lives, and it's kind of like eating one bite of a delicious donut, and then waiting a month and taking another bite. It is never going to be as good, and often it is going to be disgusting and distasteful. And then if we go chasing that first feeling rather than repenting, things get worse and worse as we dig our hole deeper and deeper to the point where it is going to require a ladder to get out, which, you know, we didn't happen to bring.
Luckily God has plenty of customized ladders for each of us, and he can save us from our stupid mistakes if we turn to him... but it would be even better if we didn't take that first bite... if we focused on not being deceitful (or whatever other sin) in the first place, so that we don't ever feel the horrible consequences, so we don't have to sit down in that hole for any amount of time before being rescued, so that we don't ever risk being lost completely and losing touch with our own spiritual senses by hardening our hearts and lying to ourselves about what good and evil are and what they feel like. Today, let's avoid the aftertaste by not committing the sin, and try to learn the easy way for once. :)
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