Though it was decades ago, I remember it like it was yesterday. I was a teenager working at fried chicken place in San Antonio. Over in the corner, the assistant manager and manager were talking. “Woo-hoo!”, the manager finally hollered. And with a big grin he slapped the assistant manager on the back and loudly said, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play!” The basic meaning of the expression was self-explanatory, but I still didn’t know what they were talking about specifically. I asked the fry cook next to me and was told that while the assistant manager’s wife was out of town, he had gone on a date with another woman. I was disgusted. To this day, the memory of his unsuspecting wife visiting the restaurant with their children a few weeks later still fills me with a sadness I can’t put into words.

The truth is this: that man was unfaithful to his wife in his heart before he ever acted on it. The fact that he took advantage of the opportunity only shows what was there all along.

It has been said that character is who you are when no one is looking. If you only do what’s right when you are being observed, then your righteousness is a façade. It’s what you do when no one’s watching, when no one will ever know, that reveals who you really are.

That’s a scary thought. Most of us like to think of ourselves as “basically good” even when we do things that are wrong. The truth is that we can deceive ourselves. “The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:4-5). “All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. (Proverbs 21:2). “As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man. Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man” (Proverbs 27:19-20)

Don’t listen to the advice of Hollywood which often says, “Follow your heart.” You cannot trust your own heart. It will deceive you. An old hymn says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.”

Unless God himself reaches inside you and changes your heart and its desires, you will keep pursuing things you know you shouldn’t. This is why David, after he sinned with Bathsheba, prayed; “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10). He knew that unless God changed his heart he would continue to sin.

If you need someone to talk to, email me at philip.schroeder777 - It's a googlemail email address.