{"id":2074,"date":"2018-04-04T10:31:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T14:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/?p=2074"},"modified":"2018-12-22T09:12:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T14:12:50","slug":"what-temptation-looks-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/what-temptation-looks-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What Temptation Looks Like"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/picography-bravery-or-stupidity-sm-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2077\" src=\"http:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/picography-bravery-or-stupidity-sm-1-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/picography-bravery-or-stupidity-sm-1-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/picography-bravery-or-stupidity-sm-1-768x525.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/picography-bravery-or-stupidity-sm-1.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All of us have, and will, come face to face with temptation. If all of your cylinders are firing, you&#8217;re facing temptation daily. My post is not a sermon on good and evil, though the two have a part to play. I really want the focus to be on what temptation looks like and how it plays out to our harm.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of temptation is found in moving in a direction that will ultimately cause harm-great or small. Temptation is also subtle and unique in the beginning. Which is why so many fail the test come exam time.<\/p>\n<p>The following are some areas that temptation shows up in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Career<\/li>\n<li>Physical Health<\/li>\n<li>Marriage<\/li>\n<li>Emotions<\/li>\n<li>Learning<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Think for a moment. Do any of the areas connect for you? Are you in the midst of giving in now?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not going to give a topic-by-topic breakdown, just a general process to understand and resist what may be tempting you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Subtlety and Innocence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every temptation begins with subtlety and seeming innocence. The subtlety usually appears in a quiet and calm persona. It could be a person or situation. In my case, there was a time where I encountered both. I was rising at a heady (at least it felt that way) clip in my career. On one occasion I had a conversation over lunch with someone I admired and trusted. He told me I was a part of the group of young executives that would be asked to take the helm at the next level, when the current leadership retired. I remember stopping (in my head) and reviewing his opinion. It sounded great and he was in a position to know, so why not take what he said as fact? At the same moment the reason side of me kicked in. Questions like; &#8220;do I even want to be the next thing&#8221; and &#8220;are you giving in to flattery?&#8221; ran through my mind. In the end, I allowed my reason to win the day and deflected the conversation into the wind.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Giving In<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also had situations where I gave into temptation. This is a tough one to write. I had been given advice over the years to listen to my wife. Not as an obedience thing, but as a good source of wisdom and intuition. I remember vividly a time where my wife warned me about a venture I was pursuing. The venture seemed sound, and ripe for success. She didn&#8217;t feel good about it and wanted me to pass on the opportunity. I faced a crossroads. Would I listen to her sound advice or push forward with my plans (one thing you should be aware of is the power ego plays in these scenarios)? In this case, I gave into the temptation my ego laid out. It cost me dearly.<\/p>\n<p>Notice the subtlety and innocence in my two situations? I look back and can understand the subtlety of my thoughts and the innocence of seemingly good things\/opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>The end goal of temptation is to lull you and give you a false sense of reality. Voices like the following come next:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Try it once and see&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Everyone tells you how talented you are&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;You may never get this chance again&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;You can&#8217;t say no, they need you&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I should be as successful as he\/she is&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Again, maybe you&#8217;re in the midst of deciding whether you will pay heed to temptation or resist. I wrote this post for you and for me because there&#8217;s so much evidence of how better life is when you don&#8217;t give in.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like more help with this topic, reach out to me directly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All of us have, and will, come face to face with temptation. If all of your cylinders are firing, you&#8217;re facing temptation daily. My post is not a sermon on good and evil, though the two have a part to play. I really want the focus to be on what temptation looks like and how&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,364,6,1856,1,1907],"tags":[128,1026,823,180,93,1934,1935,1933],"class_list":["post-2074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coaching","category-current-affairs","category-learning","category-life-management","category-uncategorized","category-well-being","tag-choices","tag-crossroads","tag-epic-living","tag-eric-pennington","tag-relationships-2","tag-resisting","tag-resisting-temptation","tag-temptation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2074"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2160,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2074\/revisions\/2160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.epicliving.com\/epic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}