TELEVISION
The average child between the ages of two and eleven views television 27.3 hours each week. By the time a person is sixteen, he or she has watched more than 20,000 hours of television, including 200,000 acts of violence, 50,000 of which are murders.
—Paul Simon
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set I go into the other room and read a book.
—Groucho Marx
Don’t tell me that kids aren’t influenced by television. I asked my son where he’d like to spend his next vacation, and he said, “Fantasy Island.” I said, “And how would you get there?” He said, “The Love Boat.” I said, “And how would you pay for it?” He said, “Father Knows Best.”
—Bob Orben
There would be fewer problems with children if they had to chop wood to keep the TV set going.
TEMPTATION
A mother told her boy not to go swimming. However, when he came into the house his mother noticed that his hair and bathing trunks were wet.
“Johnnie,” his mother scolded, “I told you not to go swimming.”
“I couldn’t help it, Mom,” he defended himself. “The water looked so good.”
“But why did you take your trunks with you?”
“Just in case I was tempted.”
No one can be delivered from temptation unless he has firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out of it.
—John Ruskin
Temptation is to see the tempter standing outside the back door of your heart. Sin is to unlock that door so that he may have his desire. Victory is to open wide the front door of your heart, inviting the Savior to enter and give you strength to bar tight the back door.
—E. Schuyler English
You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a spot for weeds.
Former president James Garfield faced the opportunity to make a lot of money but by unscrupulous means. Someone said to him, “No one will ever know.”
He responded, “But President Garfield will know, and I have to sleep with him.”
Traveling is one of the Devil’s special opportunities for tempting us. Seek always to know the mind of God before you do anything, but even more so before going on a trip. Don’t needlessly expose yourself and give the Devil an opportunity to ensnare you.
—George Mueller
A small boy was being cared for by a nursemaid. When he saw a beautiful vase in a china cabinet, he wanted it. When he was refused, he began crying, screaming, and kicking. His mother, hearing the fuss, came into the room to find out what the problem was. Picking up her child, she said to him, “What do you want, darling?” He pointed to the vase, so she gave it to him. But that didn’t satisfy him, and soon he began crying again. “Now what does my little darling want?” the mother asked. “I want—I want,” said the boy between sobs, and then he blurted out, “I want anything I’m not supposed to have!”
—Our Daily Bread
To be tempted is not to sin. The strongest attacks are made on the strongest forts.
—D. L. Moody
An exasperated motorist parked his car in a no-parking zone in London and attached the following message to the windshield: “I have circled this block twenty times. I have an appointment to keep. Forgive us our trespasses.”
When the owner of the car returned, he found this reply attached to his own note: “I’ve circled this block for twenty years. If I don’t give you a ticket, I lose my job. Lead us not into temptation.”
Years ago as a young Christian I battled the tobacco habit. Again and again I threw my pipe and cigarettes away, but always where I could find them again—“just in case!” I learned from that not to put our temptations where they can taunt us—just so we can prove how strong we are. As one has so aptly said, “To pray against temptations, and yet rush into occasions, is to thrust your fingers into the fire, and then pray they may not be burnt.”
—John O. Jess
Mark Antony was known as the “silver-throated orator of Rome.” He was a brilliant statesman, magnificent in battle, courageous, and strong. And he was handsome. As far as personal qualities are concerned, he could have become a world ruler. But he had the very vulnerable and fatal flaw of moral weakness, so much so that on one occasion his personal tutor shouted into his face, “Oh, Marcus, oh, colossal child! Able to conquer the world, but unable to resist a temptation.”
—Chuck Swindoll
Unless we have within us that which is above us, we shall soon yield to that which is about us.
Fervency in prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit is a good preservative against thoughts rushing in. Flies never settle on a boiling pot.
—D. L. Moody
Temptation can never come in such form, as to make it safe or profitable to yield.
Opportunity knocks only once, but temptation bangs on the door for years.
In a poll taken by Leadership magazine five hundred pastors were asked, “What is your greatest temptation?”
The number-one temptation was illicit sex, and the second was the temptation to quit the ministry.
Temptation is the Devil whistling at the keyhole; sinning is opening at the door and letting him in.
—Billy Sunday
The enemy will wait forty years, if necessary, to set a trap for you.
—Joe Aldrich
I can resist everything except temptation.
—Oscar Wilde
Be cautious. Opportunity does the knocking for temptation too.
—M. Batt
Temptations are like bums. Treat one nice and he’ll return with his friends.
Many of the world’s most attractive temptations are like some television commercials: frequently deceptive and frightfully costly.
—William Arthur Ward
A shopkeeper in Brighton, England, had in the little room behind his shop a portrait of F. W. Robertson, an Anglican clergyman. Whenever in his business he was tempted to trickery or meanness, he would hurry into the back room and look at the picture. “And then, sir, I felt that it was impossible for me to do it.” With those pure eyes upon him he could not sin.
A boy was much helped by Bishop Hamline, who said, “When in trouble, my boy, kneel down and ask God’s help; but never climb over the fence into the Devil’s ground, and then kneel down and ask for help. Pray from God’s side of the fence.”
No one is so good that he is immune from temptation. We will never be entirely free from it.… There is no order so holy, no place so secret where there will be no temptation.
—Thomas á Kempis
Temptation can bring a service to us. It may be a burden, but it can bring us humility and teach us good lessons. All of the saints experienced more than their share of trials and temptations, and they grew as a result.
—J. Oswald Sanders
Some ducks once found a good feeding place in the reeds that grew on the edge of a quiet stream in South Africa. A group of boys soon laid a plan to catch them. They began by placing pumpkins in the water and letting the river carry them down to where the ducks were swimming. At first the birds were nervous and flew away, but soon they decided there was no harm in permitting the pumpkins to float among them. Then came the second part of the plan. Each boy scooped out the inside of one of the pumpkins and made two small holes to see through. Then placing the hollow globes over their heads, they quietly slipped into the river. Allowing only the orange decoys to show above the waterline, they moved slowly toward their victims. Suddenly they grasped the ducks’ legs under the water and captured their unsuspecting prey.
In much the same way the Devil sends his deceptive “pumpkins” of temptations down the river of life. At first we think we can live with them and experience no harm; then, often when it’s too late, we find ourselves in the clutches of some fatal sin or habit.
An overweight business associate of mine decided it was time to shed some excess pounds. He took his new diet seriously, even changing his driving route to avoid his favorite bakery. One morning, however, he arrived at work carrying a big gigantic coffee cake.
“This is a very special coffee cake,” he explained. “I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning and there in the window were a host of warm goodies. I felt this was no accident so I prayed, ‘Lord, if you want me to have one of those delicious coffee cakes, let me have a parking place directly in front of the bakery.’
“And sure enough,” he continued, “the eighth time around the block, there it was!”
—Jim Grant
Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you second chances.
—O. A. Battista
I can resist everything except temptation.
—Oscar Wilde
TENSION
This is the age
Of the half-read page
And the quick hash
And the mad dash
The bright night
With the nerves tight
The plane hop
With the brief stop
The lamp tan
In a short span
The Big Shot
In a good spot
And the brain strain
And the heart pain
And the cat naps
Till the spring snaps
And the fun’s done.
—Virginia Brasier, Saturday Evening Post, May 28, 1949
TESTIMONY
A train plunged into a river over an opened drawbridge, and eighteen people died. The bridge engineer said he put up the red flag, warning the train in sufficient time to stop. The train engineer said the flag was white, and therefore he felt the bridge was there and it was safe to cross. The flag was examined, and it was red, but it had faded. Thus at a distance it appeared white.
Our faded testimony can misdirect others to cause them to sin.
TEXAS
Two kids were talking. One a Texan; one, not. The Texan said, “My ancestors came over on the Mayflower.” The non-Texan said, “That’s nothing. When my folks came over, the immigration laws were more strict.”
A Texan was bragging to a New Yorker about how big everything is in Texas. The New Yorker, however, pointed out that he knew Texas had nothing like Niagara Falls. The man from Texas thought for a second and then replied, “That’s true, but we have a plumber who can fix it.”
A Texan said to a person from Connecticut, “You can stay on a train all day and all night and tomorrow, and still be in Texas.”
“Oh, we have a train like that in Connecticut.”