Something So Little // Emmett Bryant

 So many times we do things that we know are wrong, but reason in our heads why it is okay "just this one time." I am not even talking about serious issues, just small decisions we make in our day to day lives. We convince ourselves that because the thing we did was small and only we know about it then it couldn't be that wrong. If Milton's rendition of the Fall in Book XI teaches us anything, it teaches us that small mistakes can have major, long term consequences. 

Michael the angel shows Adam the effect of his and Eve's decision. He sees death, pain, suffering, and ultimately the downfall of what God originally called good. Michael allowed Adam and Eve see the horrors that erupted from their one, small, wrong decision. Not only did it affect their relationship with God, it affected every human being's relationship with God. Many times, myself included, we do small things that we know are wrong, and over time we actually start to believe that those things we do in secret are okay. We really believe that. But we need to learn a lesson from our original parents the dangers of underestimating the consequences of disobeying God's commands. His commands are not there just to prohibit us and make our lives hard, but they are there because they allow us to experience life to its fullest while in right relationship with the Creator of life itself. 

I commented on Haylee Lynd's post and Taylor Vice's post. 

Comments

  1. Emma DSeptember 27, 2021 at 10:34 PM

    This is such a great idea to pull from this, Emmett. I spent a lot of time after finishing the reading thinking about how the repercussions of the Fall never end for Adam and Eve, and how we still acutely feel the consequences to this day. Disobedience, no matter what the perceived scale of severity, is still completely wrong; no matter how it's justified, it often has the most painful consequences. If anything, this should definitely revive awareness in how our decisions matter more than we could ever realize.

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  2. Braylan StringfellowSeptember 28, 2021 at 8:38 AM

    It’s crazy to think how just one small thing can lead to something huge. It makes you think whether or not something small that we did led to anything big. You are right about how we need to keep God’s commands because rebelling against them will lead to a hard life.

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