Pretty Poisons; Pretty Pathetic

There isn’t anyone in my family that likes mushrooms.

And I love them.

When the kids were little, even using cream of mushroom soup made them gag.  They’d meticulously pick out the microscopic pieces of gray and, with disgusting noises coming from their throats, would put them on the side of their plates. Glaring at me as if I’d tried to poison them with something despicable. My son called them little bits of nastiness.

I don’t cook with mushrooms.  

I am, however, constantly reminded of their presence.

Living in the damp climate of central Florida, there are times of the year where mushrooms abound. They pop up in our lawn as if they’d been carefully planted, a bed of tiny hats daring you to look beneath to see who’s wearing them. Whimsical looking. And they grow so quickly.

They make me smile. Because I love mushrooms.

Just not these.

Lawns and green areas are covered with them, but none of them get eaten.

There’s a reason critters won’t touch these things. They’re intestinally challenging. Gut grinding. Causing severe toilet dependency.

You get the picture.

These aren’t the mushrooms I love.

But they look like them.

I get tripped up a lot by the mushrooms of life.  Those ubiquitous fungi that catch me off guard.

Not the small hat dudes. The things that appear good at the outset but turn into things I shouldn’t mess with.

Case in point. I have another wedding coming up, and I’ll look on Pinterest for ideas for decorations, for things that could be made rather than purchased. And a five minute search can turn into two hours of trolling through amazing ideas and recipes.

Not life and death. Unless you count the dust bunnies I should have killed and didn’t.

But what about the times I get sucked into something that seems right. Looks right. Maybe it’s because everyone else is doing it.

Such as when friends begin talking about important matters and it segues into hurtful gossip. And I’m adding my two bits. Critical spirit.

Getting busy with good things, but allowing that to keep me from interacting with someone who’s really hurting. Someone I may not want to take the time to be with. Excuses.

Working hard to accomplish a task, doing my best, but not being satisfied because I think I should do better. Blame and guilt.

Holding someone else to a high standard of character but fudging on how I act in the same kind of situation. Double standard.

Things that appear good in the beginning but devolve into something very wrong.

The apostle Peter understood how important it was to be intentional about his choices, about the things in which he chose to invest himself. He’d been fooled before.

“Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever.”      1 Peter 5:8-9

It’s tough being alert; it requires focus. There’s so much in life that’s important to me. And I don’t want to be fooled.

Those mushrooms just aren’t worth it.

First photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org.

Second photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org.