What’s on the Outside?

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Fresh cherries at our house meant homemade cherry pie. Homemade cherry pie meant rolling the extra pie crust dough into cinnamon and sugar slices to be baked for eating. On this occasion, though, after one pie-crust bite, John said, “Mom, I wonder if you put something other than cinnamon on the pie crust.” Sure enough, cayenne pepper sits in the spice cupboard right next to cinnamon, and that’s what was liberally sprinkled on the pie crust. Looking at the pie crust, we couldn’t tell the difference, but the taste shouted it!

Before I was saved, that was true of me. I thought I looked good on the outside but inside was different. I remember the day I was saved, the pastor had just said, “You can fool everyone around you, but the Lord knows your heart. If you haven’t repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ, you are not saved.” Those words burned through my facade.

There have been times since then when my outside was put together, but the inside was not. Once I confessed my struggles with depression to my church family, I began to heal. They hadn’t known what I was dealing with inside.

What about you? Is the outside one way, but the inside another? Does the Lord want you to do something about that—discuss it with your husband, share it with a friend, ask for prayer at church?

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on
the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD
seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

10 thoughts on “What’s on the Outside?”

  2. Mrs. Maxwell: your open heart is such a testament to your faith & the woman that you are. Bless you for sharing. (P.S. I love hot & spicy so I would have eaten that cherry-cayenne pie!) Take care.

    1. Bless you, Amy, for your encouragement. It is the Lord’s grace and mercy at work. I wish you had been here to eat that spicy pie crust. I hated to throw it out!

    1. You are funny, Johnna! One thing I know about you is that you aren’t satisfied to stay that unpalatable pie crust. You are taking what you know is displeasing to the Lord to Him, and then repenting, and seeking His mercy and strength for change.

  5. Thank you for this post. It was very encouraging to me. As a teen (13), I can try to look great on the outside, but be struggling on the inside. My parents really help me though.
    Speaking of the pepper mishap, it reminds me of the time the Moodys put salt on their muffins instead of cinnamon. 🙂
    P.S. You must be good at using something to illustrate a character lesson. My mom does that all the time. 😉

    1. Alana, it is wonderful that you can be aware of the difference of what’s on the outside versus what’s on the inside. We don’t move positively toward change unless we can identify a problem. I’ll tell you who is good with the character lessons – Mr. Maxwell. He often sees great lessons in things that go right past me.

      1. Thank you for the encouragement, Mrs. Maxwell. You are very humble too, deflecting praise.

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