{"id":314,"date":"2008-09-25T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/archives\/314"},"modified":"2008-09-25T06:05:37","modified_gmt":"2008-09-25T13:05:37","slug":"the-mouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/the-mouse\/","title":{"rendered":"“THE MOUSE!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 13:4-7<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Confession is always good for the soul. Joyce and I were enjoying a cup of coffee this morning when we happened to think of the episode of\u2014\u201cTHE MOUSE!\u201d Not just any mouse, mind you, but \u201cTHE MOUSE!\u201d<\/p>\n

In a way it was one of my finest hours\u2014but in reality is was pure and simple deception. I have already confessed it to the Lord and to Joyce, so do not hammer me about dealing with the issue.<\/p>\n

It all happened one evening in Vancouver, Washington. In the middle of the night, Joyce was awake, feeding our baby son. She happened to see a small mouse out for a leisurely stroll. Now to me this seemed to be normal and proper behavior for a mouse. To Joyce it was a national crisis. With a scream she fled into our bedroom and issued this ultimatum: \u201cYou will be getting up with the kids in the middle of the night until that mouse is gone!\u201d That got my immediate attention!<\/p>\n

Traps were set at every logical location. After a week the traps were still empty and I was on permanent night duty. It was then I came up with a remarkable plan. The next evening I walked into the kitchen and got down on my knees to look under the refrigerator. I pulled out the empty trap and called in a happy voice, \u201cHoney do you want to see it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce squealed and said, \u201cJust get it out of here!\u201d I walked outside and made noise as if I had thrown it in the garbage can. Remember, it was all just a farce, there was no mouse. I did not say there was, but I had lied by intimation.<\/p>\n

Do you have any mice in your life? Are there things that you say and do in order to lead people to believe something that is not true? Let me be a little more specific\u2014do you lead people to believe you are a dedicated Christian when, in fact, you are living a sham?<\/p>\n

Integrity is a quality that is becoming increasingly rare, in our families, our communities, our nation\u2014but sadly even in our churches. That is a tragedy. Above all else, we need to be authentic.<\/p>\n

I am not setting a mouse trap here. I challenge each of us to examine our hearts to see if there are things hidden there that have been disguised as something else. This may be a painful exercise, but it will free us of a heavy burden of guilt. That is real love!<\/p>\n

Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!<\/p>\n

— Pastor Cecil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-corinthians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}