We have probably all heard of how if you tell a child not to touch something then the next thing they do when we turn our backs (or for some not even that long) is touch it. It seems that human nature has a tendancy to desire the things they are told they shouldn’t have. The moment something is labelled “out-of-bounds” another neon-flashing-all-singing-all-dancing label appears saying, “go on, touch me” or maybe there is some brain process going on that we aren’t aware of that is saying “what you heard is not what they really meant”, or “they are only trying to ruin your fun, ol’ sour puss”. This must have been some of the process Adam and Eve went through in the garden of Eden.

Something else I learnt when going through my teens and then working with young people going through theirs, is that on the whole people do not learn from another person’s experience. It seems that no matter how much we tell others things, they often only learn it when they go through it themselves. When I was told as a 14 year old that holding hands led to kissing, this led to passionate kissing, and this led to “other things”. “Whatever” i thought (even before the phrase was popular, the intent has always been around), I know better. I learnt it was true, d’oh.

But anyway, I digress. What I am getting at is how we make things more appealing by making them taboo. So when we say to people “don’t do this” and “don’t do that” are we just making those things the main object of their focus. “Don’t look at the elephant”, its not gonna work! all you are gonna want to do is look at the elephant. So what I am thinking is that instead of saying “don’t” how about saying “do”. Paul had the same idea in the epistle to the Colossians, he said “Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth” (3:2). In another place we are exalted to “think on these things”, talking about things that are true, honest, pure, lovely, good, virtueous, praiseworthy (Phili 4:8).

I just think we need to think about how we exalt people to Godly living, not to fill it with a list of things we shouldn’t do but to exalt something to think of the things they should be doing. When our mind is focussed on God then we won’t have to be trying to do the things we shouldn’t do. It’s only when we take our mind off God and start focussing on other things that we are drawn towards those things that are not good for us.

Disclaimer - I know there are times when we feel we are completely focussed on God and then *wham*, something  takes us out from nowhere. Satan will target the righteous, and what is important is whether in these times we choose to re-address our focus back onto God (through repentance if we have sinned) or whether we allow the knock to floor us and to allow it to take us away from the path God desires for us.