Anne LeGare

I have a low-level dread of checkout lanes at the grocery store. For starters, I always pick the slowest one – no matter what. Secondly, I’ve been a sucker for the treats. At most stores, the twilight gnomes have stocked CHOCOLATE, gum, batteries, lip balm, and little items you may have forgotten on one side of the lane, and all kinds of gossip-laden publications on the other side.

I’m pretty good at making it to the cashier without being tempted to thumb through a magazine that will show me Brangelinas’ latest tattoos, or new-found cellulite on an anorexic starlet’s thighs. But to make it the five feet without picking up a pack of gum, tic-tacs, or CHOCOLATE is quite a different matter. If there’s a refrigerator nearby, I’ll grab a Diet Coke to help wash it all down.

One local store adds insult to injury, because the cashiers are in some sort of competition to sell their customers “basket items,” which are usually deeply discounted CHOCOLATE (or dental supplies for those who gave in last month).

Grocery managers are in on a little secret about humans. Our sin patterns are remarkably predictable. We see what we want and we take it without thinking twice.

We can read all about it in the Bible, starting with the mother-of-all-sinners, Eve. Right after Eve and Adam did it, most of their offspring perfected it. I’ve been calling it the “look and took” sins.

Gen 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make {one} wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Gen 6:1-2 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.

Gen 34:2 When Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

Joshua 7:21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.”

2 Sam 11:1-4 Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. 2 Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king’s house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

Judges 14:1-3 Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 So he came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.” 3 Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.”

Samson ended up paying a heavy price for looking and taking. He wasn’t going to be looking at anything anymore! God accomplished His purposes through Samson anyway, but it wasn’t pretty.

Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison.

Fortunately for the Christian, we aren’t chained to the pattern of the world anymore, and we aren’t powerless over the “look and took” sins. We are more than conquerors in Christ, and we have the mind of Christ to help us resist temptation.

Satan’s scheme is to isolate us and tell us lies. Once we’re alone and vulnerable, he whispers to our old nature that the “look and took” sins are a-okay.

Jesus showed us a different way. He dealt with the same type of temptations when He was in the wilderness and Satan approached him with different opportunities to sin. Satan specifically offered Jesus to look and to take:

Matt 4:8-11 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, `YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’ ” 11 Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

Ps 119:9-11 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to His word.

Now when I go through the checkout aisle, I think about what Job said, “I have made a covenant with my eyes.” No more eye candy for me.

While in the Protocol job that kept me from my babies, I had a few more embarrassing moments.  The commmanding general (CG) had a short list of company and battalion commanders he preferred for escort duty when a VIP visited.

When one of the officers in the CG’s preferred “stable” wasn’t available for escort duty, the job would sometimes fall on me, because I knew the boss’s requirements for a VIP show-and-tell.  After all, I was the one crafting most of the itineraries.

One time, a three-star general was visiting, and I was tapped to be his escort officer.  He was the Army’s top personnel officer, so the post Reception Station was high on the list of places to take him.

I could tell right away he was thoroughly uncomfortable with a female escort.  I would jump out of the sedan to open his door and he would already be out of the car.  I would go ahead of him to open a door for him, and he would refuse to go through it.  It was awkward for both of us to play the role-reversal game.

But I persevered because I was his escort!  I attempted several more times to beat him to a door, to no avail.  Finally, I acquiesced and started following him.  That seemed to make him happy.

After the Reception Station briefing, the general started walking briskly toward the front of the building, so I was double-timing to keep up with him.  As we rounded the corner and through a doorway, the general turned to me and said “I think I can take it from here, Captain.”

We had just walked into the men’s bathroom!

Is there such a thing as the “Prevenient” grace of God? Does He work in us before we become Christians? I think He does.

My initial inkling that I wasn’t where God wanted me happened during my first week of work in the dream job. Colonel Jack H. Griffith, Jr., the Fort Dix Chief of Staff, buzzed me on the intercom to invite me to my inaugural meeting with all the post directors. Jack Griffith referred to these as the “heavy hitters” of the installation, and I was the newly installed Protocol Officer. I wasn’t sure what a “heavy hitter” was, but I was ready to learn.

I jumped up, put on my green uniform coat, and grabbed my steno book and a pen. That’s when it happened. Breast milk was oozing right through my shirt, and quickly soaking my coat. By the time I got upstairs, I had a patch of milk spreading just under my nametag on the right, and soaking my awards on the left. It was time to feed my baby!

But I was an Army Captain! I’d landed the headquarters job and was about to rub shoulders with the bigs! I’d done this career and baby thing before. The second child wasn’t supposed to cause me to rethink my priorities. I was a woman in conflict: should I make an excuse, miss the important meeting, and feed my baby, or should I wad up some paper towels, shove them in my shirt, and go to the meeting? I chose the meeting. Baby Mark got the bottle.

When I got back to my desk a small voice whispered in my heart, “your body was made to feed your baby – go home!” I brushed away a stray tear, and started planning the Commanding General’s garden party.