Sense About Scents

I love to smell certain scents....roses blooming, fresh bread baking, coffee perking, leaves burning...I could go on and on. But I don't like to smell certain perfumes...even expensive ones...in excess!

There have been so many times that I have been in a crowded place somewhere and inevitably someone....man or woman....would be nearby drenched in scent and I would have a headache before the event even started. Or have you ever gone to pick up another lady to go shopping or wherever and when she got in the car you knew you were in trouble because you would have to endure the scent she loved so much that she used much more than necessary? Ahhhhhwwwww! Almost gives me a headache to think about it!

When I was a teenager my favorite perfume was called "Tigress". It came in a little bottle with a tiger-striped top. I'm sure that tells my age! I don't know if they even still make this perfume or not. I loved the smell. But a little dab would do me. After a while though it started giving me headaches so I pretty much gave up wearing perfume of any sort.

I wish that people who are able and love to wear scents would just use some sense about it! Use just enough to smell pretty but not enough to make people sick!

That's the way I want to be in my Christian life, too. I want to have the aroma of Jesus in my life. Remember Mary in Mark 14: 3..."having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on His (Jesus) head." When she broke the alabaster box of perfume, I'm sure the whole room smelled of it. Maybe it was over-powering even! But that was because she had given the best she had to Jesus. You can't over-power Jesus with your scent of love and praise!

Sometimes though when we go out into the world, we have to use sense about our spiritual scent! We need to have enough of the scent of Jesus on us that the world would desire Him. I actually don't think we can have too much of the real scent of Jesus on us. The trouble comes when we have a cheap imitation of His scent.

There's a trap that even the best of Christians can fall into. Sometimes we can become proud. Maybe we have put aside some worldly things. Maybe we have sacrificed many things to be of service to God. We have to be careful then to not get puffed up and proud....and critical of others! In times like this it's so easy to boast of what "we've" done for God and at the same time point out to others what "they're" doing wrong! We fall into Satan's snares and instead of being a fragrance that attracts people to God we are surrounded by a fog of strong scent of "me,me,me" that makes people sick! We must beware that God doesn't have to say to us what he said to Peter in Matthew 16: 23..."Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." He was saying..."You don't smell like God anymore....you smell like the world!"

Oh, Lord....let me have some sense about the scents that others smell when they're around me! Please let it be only You that they smell and not the offensive stink of the world! Amen!

Marilyn