thinking about consequences

I'm currently in the middle of reading an awesome book. 

It's called "Shades of Blue" by Karen Kingsbury.

And it was such a thought provoking book, so I thought I would share my thoughts about the subject covered. 

How often do we go into something, not being able, or not willing, to see the consequences that will come along with our choices? 

Choosing to have a child before they were married, for two of the characters, ended with a lot of consequences.  

Looking back at the decision they made, they wish they could have changed what they did. 

If they had decided to wait, resist the urge to go too far, then their relationship would not have been torn apart.

After they had made the decision to do this, they both had a sinking feeling in their stomach. 

they knew that they had sinned, but they didn't turn away from their unhealthy decision.

How often is this the case in our own lives? We know we are sinning, but we are not willing to give it up. We think "it can't be that bad". 

We are entrapped in our sin. There is no better feeling in the world then when we know we have been forgiven of our sin and are no longer trapped inside of it. 

They continued to do something that the Bible states was created for within marriage. It is sacred, and the consequences shown in the book are a clear representation of why it is intended for marriage.

It torn apart their relationship. Even though they loved each other, this ruined the relationship they had spent so much time to create. Nothing would ever be the same again. (If you read the book, this is developed more, but I don't want to give away spoilers)

Brad, the main character, wanted things to go back the way they were. 

Things were never the same, because their relationship was now based on lust, and they were caught in a whirlwind of sin. 

Ultimately because Brad wanted everything to go back to the way it was before things happened, it ultimately cost a child their life. 

Even though they tried to mend the relationship, it eventually ended because of guilt and many other variables mentioned in the book. 

There's more to the book than this, but this is what I want to focus on today.

We may not think about what the consequences are going to be for our sin. It could be a lack of knowledge that we are sinning in the first place. This book helped open my eyes to the fact that there is always more to our sin than what we see immediately. 

I also came to the realization God still forgives us of even the most significant sins, the ones that hurt us and other people. He is a God of never ending mercy and grace. (That doesn't mean we keep sinning so that grace increases though. When we want to please God, we won't be wanting to sin.) 

Often we don't think about our choices, what may happen if we choose to disobey God, a law, or something our parent's told us.

Often times, people think back at decisions they made and say "If only I could go back and change my decision, knowing what I know now."

It's very cliche, I know. 

When we aren't careful, we can fall into sin. That is why we must spend time "watching and praying so that we will not fall into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."