Foot in the Door

It Starts With a Lie.

    It’s been thirty years and I still feel like a sucker. One month after our first daughter was born I received a phone call. “Good afternoon Mrs. Lovenburg we would like to congratulate you on your winnings!” I had never won anything before except a large bottle of Elmer’s glue from the local hardware store so I was very excited.

    As the voice on the phone gave me my prize options I wondered when it was that I actually entered this contest. Having to choose between fifty dollars of groceries or a free carpet cleaning all it took was a quick glance at our dirty, avocado green carpet to choose the cleaning.

    The appointment was set for that night around five because the cleaning tech was only in town for the one day. It wasn't the most convenient time for me but I would not pass up an opportunity to have my carpets cleaned for free. It went downhill from there, he showed up at my front door two hours late and as I watched him remove his brand-new vacuum I knew we had been duped. 

    Yes, he was a vacuum salesman and he spent the next four hours trying his best to convince us of the inadequacies of our vacuum and questioned our parenting skills for not knowing the importance of a spotless floor when it comes to our precious little girl. 

   This is the girl that loved to eat crayons, ate gum from an ashtray, peeled and chewed gum from the bottom of a coliseum seat and licked a slug at Jr. High camp. Had we known she would be so unselective in her food choices we wouldn't have bothered.

    After four hours of convincing we bought the overpriced, fifty pound beast and waited until midnight for him to finish the carpet cleaning. Later we found out the salesman lived right around the corner from us, boy did I feel like a fool. I seriously wanted to knock on his front door and shake the snot out of him for deceiving us!

    Now that I am older and more informed I recognize deception more easily. I have learned to question motives and compare things with the truths I have learned over the years.

    Revelation 12:10, 11 calls the devil an accuser, he is very skilled at making us feel inadequate. If we give him that -foot in the door- opportunity he will surely do his best to make us feel like failures and rob us blind. I am so thankful that God no longer listens to those accusations and he sees me through the blood of Jesus, as his precious daughter.         We have the means of victory and it is through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The blood was provided for us, our testimony is that spoken word that puts the liar in his place and propels us on to a better life.

    It would have been far better had I just turned that salesman away at the door. The word has made it easier for me to recognize his lies and refuse to listen when he comes knocking at my heart’s door.

    Revelation 12:10, 11 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”