Before you act out again, ask yourself this question – What message will this send to others?
A man broke into a house late one night. The owner’s parrot said to him, “Jesus is watching you.” The burglar was undeterred. “What is Jesus going to do to stop me?” he asked the bird. As the man continued to fill his sack with valuables, the parrot repeated, “Jesus is watching you.” This only emboldened the thief, who told the bird, “Tell Jesus he can do what he wants, and I’ll take what I want.”
“Okay,” said, the bird. “But I warned you.”
Then the parrot turned to the Doberman Pincher whom the family had named “Jesus.” The parrot said, “Sick him, Jesus!”
Every time you take something that isn’t yours – a glance, an image, a fantasy – Jesus is watching you. And other people are watching you, as well.
C.S. Lewis said it well: “When we behave badly, we make Christianity unbelievable to the outside world.”
The antidote: “So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man” (Acts 24:16).
Recovery Step: The next time you think about doing something dumb, remember two things: (a) Jesus is watching you, and (b) so is someone else.
