My husband and I tell the story differently.
He claims he had just ridden his bicycle home from a friend’s house. The garage door was closed, so he propped the bike against the wall of the house. The bike slipped, so he bent over to pick it up.
I claim I was talking on the phone when I heard a mysterious scratching against the outside of the house. It was scary, and I didn’t know what it was. I went to the window to look, and all of a sudden a man’s face popped up and stared at me through the window. Only my worst fear—a man looking at me through the window when I’m in the house alone.
We agree on the part where I screamed bloody murder and yelled at him in scared anger for the next 10 minutes and where he yelled back that he was only propping up his bike, for Pete’s sake.
Great moments in marriage. Mark it down.
There’s a verse in Scripture that brings up a similar skin-crawling fear in me.
Cain has offered an unfavorable sacrifice to God and now is angry at God. God sees Cain’s downcast face and says to him:
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Gen. 4:7, NIV).
Maybe this verse is only terrifying for girls who fear what could be outside in the dark. (Do you run and close all the curtains like I do when your husband is out of town?)
If I do not do what is right, sin is crouching at my door.
Makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Are you in grave danger of doing the wrong thing?
Sometimes I can feel it, the hot breath of sin. When I do something well—when I have a brilliant moment of success—I can see pride crouched low and leaning forward, right there on my own front porch. Waiting for me to open the door. (Cue fists pounding a driving beat on the low end of the piano keys.) It desires to have me, but I must master it.
Girls, be vigilant. Know what waits in the dark to destroy you, and throw the deadbolt.
Christy Fitzwater is the author of A Study of Psalm 25: Seven Actions to Take When Life Gets Hard. She is a blogger, pastor’s wife and mom of two teenagers and resides in Montana. Visit ChristyFitzwater.com for more information about her ministry.
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