Nice & Soft

I filled up my little basket with all the things I needed from the local grocery store and read the last item on my list, “good TP.” 

This past week I decided that I wanted to venture from the normal toilet paper and see if I could find some made in Kenya that was better, preferably softer. I figured that since I’m soon leaving the single life, I needed to splurge on simple things, such as a better quality TP.

As I searched the different choices my eyes were drawn to a four-pack that read “Nice & Soft… Premium white tissue.”

“Perfect,” I thought. It couldn’t get much better than Nice & Soft. Last item checked off my list and I was off.

A few days later I eagerly opened my four-pack of Nice & Soft, expecting to be delighted with my find. But what I found was quite the opposite.  Rather than a roll of fluffy white TP, I was holding a roll of white sand paper. I could tear a page from a book and blow my nose on that and it would be better than my Nice & Soft premium white two-ply tissue.

“Two-ply”, more like two pieces of sand paper stuck together.

Needless to say, I felt ripped off and deceived by the manufacturer.

I think that sometimes, as Christians, we falsely advertise ourselves as being one person but when one “opens the package” and looks inside, he finds something totally different.

In Matthew 7, Jesus says:

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Yesterday we had a meeting with all of our high school kids, supported by TI. We do this throughout the year, giving them a chance to vent their frustration and for us to help guide them into making the right decisions in life. One of the girls told us that she was a part of the Christian club at her school but the teacher who led that club was so harsh and mean. She said that she has a difficult time trusting Christian leadership because of the roughness of this one teacher. The teacher looked nice and soft on the outside, but really, she was as abrasive as sandpaper.

I never want to portray one thing in my own life and be something different. Even though I have my rough spots, I hope that they are seen on my wrapping rather then only when one gets to know me. I don’t want to be a Nice & Soft Christian.

The search for decent TP continues…