Flawless Words

In the past couple of years, some of the must-have gadgets for women have been the Flawless series:  Flawless Brows, Flawless Body, Flawless Legs. I have been around long enough to know that there is nothing anyone anywhere can sell me that can make anything about me or my body flawless. So I was unmoved by the commercials. 

However, my 13-year-old daughter bought every.single.promise these commercials tried to sell her.

Recently, I was heading out to the grocery store, and I asked my daughter if she needed anything. The conversation went a bit like this:

Me:  “Need anything at the store?”

Kendall:  “Shaving cream.”

Me:  “You said you wouldn’t need shaving cream anymore if we gave you the extra money you needed to buy Flawless Body. Remember? That’s one of the reasons I let you buy it.”

Kendall:  “It’s just not giving me a close enough shave.”

Me:  “I told you numerous times that the only way to get a close shave is to use a regular razor and put in the work necessary the old-fashioned way.”

Kendall:  “But I didn’t know that Flawless Body doesn’t give you a close shave.”

Me:  (Speechless with rage. Probably twitching or exhibiting some sort of physical reaction.) “What? Are you kidding? I told you that every.single.time we saw that commercial. I told you that every.single.time you brought it up in the car. I told you that every.single.time you showed it to me in the store. I must have told you hundreds of times!”

Kendall:  (Looking honestly like this is the first time she has ever heard this. Ever.) “The commercials say it gives a close shave. Remember how they demonstrate on that pink balloon?” 

This depth of frustration is experienced by parents everywhere on some level. We try so hard to give our kids good advice, to fill them with truth, and yet, there are times in which they choose to listen to someone else (who may have ulterior motives) and completely tune out what we – who love them completely and have their best interests at heart – have said (sometimes repeatedly). 

And what I have to say to all of us today is that God understands. If we look at Genesis chapter 3, we read about the temptation of Adam and Eve, or the first commercial, if you will:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths (v. 1-7).

Now, I’m not trying to shame Kendall or anyone else who has bought any of the Flawless products. I imagine they work better for some than others, and I have certainly fallen victim to advertising before. I have bought things that I thought would make my life easier or make me look better, only to be disappointed. We’ve all done that.

But look at what Satan, the serpent, does in these verses. He twists God’s words around so that it makes God sound like a killjoy, someone who is bent on keeping Adam and Eve in this prison of a garden, not taking good care of them, not letting them eat from any tree in the garden. 

When what God actually said was that they could eat of any tree in the garden except one. Do you see what Satan did there? He planted a seed in Eve’s heart by the way he worded his question, a seed of doubt that God was treating them right, a seed of resentment that God was keeping really good things from them, that God was, in fact, lying to them. Essentially, according to Satan, God couldn’t be trusted.

Furthermore, God was actually keeping them from that fruit because He knew that if they ate it, they would become like God. And this is a big one here because we all want to rule ourselves. It’s in our nature. It’s called selfishness. We want what we want, and we only like other people as long as they help us to get what we want. So if God is keeping us from becoming gods ourselves, then we aren’t okay with that; after all, if we rule ourselves we have no rules. And that’s appealing to our sinful natures.

So we are told that Eve notices that the tree is good for food, that it is a delight to the eyes, and that it will make her wise. Continuing our parallel to these commercials for Flawless products (or any products, for that matter), we can see a pattern emerging.  

You are missing out. Whatever you are currently doing is wrong/outdated. You need to catch up to everyone else who has already discovered a better way. You are being left behind. This new product (just $19.95! with free shipping!) is sheer perfection. Watch as we shave a pink balloon! So soft! So easy! You’re a fool to use anything else!

And we buy into the lies. So we buy the product. Occasionally, we truly are satisfied. But often, the claims were too good to be true, and our eyes are opened. We know that we are naked. Those anti-aging creams can’t keep us forever 25, those electric razors don’t make us look like the women on the commercials, those vacuum cleaners (however expensive) are still just vacuum cleaners.

I think the key is vigilance, keeping our eyes open and being aware of where we are placing our trust. It’s easy to say we are listening to God and reading and applying the truth found in His Word, but are we really? Sometimes we as believers are quick to give the “right” answers, but are we honestly following God’s ways and accepting His truths rather than someone else’s? 

God’s words are the only ones that are truly flawless. Proverbs 30:5 (NIV) tells us:  Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

This particular story, although it is less than flawless, does have a happy ending. My daughter had saved the box for her Flawless Body, and I had saved the receipt. So on our next visit to the store, we returned the culprit and left happy, with money back in our hands, the defective product out of our home, and the beauty of redemption in our hearts.