When I immigrated to the United States from Cameroon, West Central Africa, I was surprised by so many things. One of them was the pet culture. I was surprised to see people having snakes, turtles, and other fascinating animals as house pets. In my home country, most pets are cats or dogs for one reason: to protect the home from intruders or rodents. When I came here, I was surprised to see someone keep a mouse as a pet. It was a huge culture shock for me to try to reconcile seeing a mouse as a household nuisance versus seeing it as a welcome guest in the home, as a pet.
Well, I remember one day back home in Cameroon. My family and I were sitting at the dining table getting ready to have our family dinner when I saw my grandfather jump outside of his seat and tell the boys to get brooms and sticks. I was perplexed as to what was happening. Then across the room I saw this poor little mouse. As the ladies of the house got out of their seats and out of the boys’ way the hunt began. One goal: to kill the mouse. I witnessed the mouse run through the wall corners, zigzagging, trying to get away but my grandfather was determined to kill it. Oh the poor little mouse. I was feeling bad for it. My cousin almost broke a chair trying to hit the mouse. A lot of missing hits occurred, but eventually, one more hit, and bang! The poor little mouse was wounded and killed. I was only 12 years old when it happened. At the time I wondered why my grandfather would not just let that little mouse go. It was going to leave the house eventually! Why break furniture trying to catch or kill a little poor mouse. I found it silly, pitying my little unknown friend. Well… it’s only years later, everything made sense. There’s a popular African proverb that says, “What an elder sees sitting down, a young person cannot see standing up.”
Did you know that a mouse's life expectancy is 6 months to 2 years but can give birth to 300 little mice during its lifetime? As a child, I saw a poor little mouse in our dining room. My grandfather was not just seeing a mouse. He was seeing a colony of mice that would destroy the house, ravage the food we had in our storage, chew on our clothes and destroy our property. I was pitying and belittling the very thing that was set to destroy me and my family.
Everything starts little, doesn’t it? A little alcohol, and one can find themselves after years of poor coping become alcoholic. A little cigarette and 50 years later still stuck on the little cigarette. A little anger poorly managed as a child due to trauma only to find oneself lose a great job opportunity due to poor emotional intelligence. One night stand turns into promiscuity. One little play at a Casino turns into a gambling addiction. A little ice cream during your feelings of sadness only leads to 40 pounds weight gain. One little bite of the apple for Adam and Eve to find themselves in sin and out of the garden. The undealt little jealousy in Cain led to the murder of his brother Abel. PAUSE: What is that little thing in your life that God has asked you to deal with and you ignore, but can eventually be a detriment to you?
You know why we don’t pay attention to certain things? Because we don't consider them a threat. We perceive them as “unimportant,” “little”, “not a big deal.” Solomon started out as the wisest and wealthiest king in the world. However, the Bible says in 1 Kings 11:4, “And it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not faithful to the LORD his God, as David his father had been." The Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites were not to marry foreign women, for they would turn your sons away from Me to serve other gods (Deut. 7:2-4). Solomon knew God’s instructions, but still chose to ignore them. He married the first foreign woman and nothing happened. He eventually married 700 wives with many more concubines. Solomon was no different than his ancestors. Psalm 106:34-36 says, “They did not destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them. Instead, they mixed with the nations, learned their ways, and served their idols, which became a snare to them.”
What destructive habit or behavior are you not willing to confront that is slowly killing you, your destiny, your relationships? What friendships are you unwilling to end that are causing you to compromise your faith in search of the world's approval or selfish gain and gratification. Everything is permissible but not everything is profitable. Face the trauma, confront the toxic behavior, deal with the habit! It’s after your destiny! It’s after your family! It’s after your marriage! It's after your business! It’s after your offspring! The enemy doesn’t use big traps. He uses small baits. The smaller the bait, the more harmless it seems, and the more the fish will be tricked into nudging on the bait and getting caught. One small bad decision can negatively impact the rest of your life. You think it’s a small loss, but to the enemy it’s a big gain. The enemy’s deception is to make us believe “I can handle it,” “I have self-control”… Um, only to find oneself having dinner at someone’s place and ending up in their bed sheets. This happens when we don’t set boundaries because we think we can master our flesh. Run! The Bible says to flee from temptation, not reason with it. If you are currently struggling with a “little” issue, don’t be afraid to ask for help or reach out to someone you trust and be vulnerable to discuss your inner, personal struggles. I pray that God will give us individually people we can confide in and turn to when we are battling our inner demons.
That poor little mouse deceived me! I pitied her, not knowing that she was after my family, my clothes, my food, everything I held dear. The first step to becoming free is to recognize that we have a problem. The second step is to muster the courage to face it and deal with it. Don't pet the demon. Cast it out in Jesus' name and place boundaries not to fall into the same condition again.The Bible says, “Whoever the Son sets free is free indeed!” I believe it to be true. However, I have learned that God’s deliverance often comes in different ways. Sometimes it comes through personal prayer and consecration. Other times it comes through a series of spiritual deliverance and soul cleansing by spiritual authority, and sometimes it also comes in the form of therapy. The goal is not just to stop the habit, but to get to the root cause, the why behind the what, the reason behind the action. Admitting that we have a problem takes courage. No one likes to be vulnerable and appear weak. However, I would rather appear weak temporarily and heal, become totally set free than pretend to be strong on the outside and die in silence. There is no big sin or small sin. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. Sin is Sin before God. We all have an inner struggle. Let us pray and ask the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts of anything we do or say that is not pleasing to our Heavenly Father.
This poor little mouse fooled me years ago! My grandfather is indeed a very wise man after all! Wiser than King Solomon? That's a debate for another day :-)
Nessa Esh
@PrayerStillWorks
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Amazing message and thank you for sharing. You are so right, it’s always the little things. For the approval of others, we let ourselves get out of character, do things we will usually not do just for the fear of not having any cool friends or not be seeing as someone great to hang out with. But usually at the end, that change slowly ruins the way you think, starts to make you question your belief and accept and tolerate what is despicable to God in the form of God asks us to love everyone so it’s ok to be around this person and hang around them when we are are really what we eat. I had to learn these lessons the hard way and getting burned deeply to get away. And yes therapy does help with getting the roots to the why’s. Thank you.