Knowledge of the Lord and Expired Face Masks

"Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Only fools despise wisdom and discipline." - Proverbs 1:7 [I THINK ;) ]

Ok so this is how it is. Knowledge is important. It's vital. We need it to survive. We need it to live. We need it to love... We need it to save a bit of dignity.

No, really.

Today I decided to treat myself to a spa-type-facial-thing. Not just the usual cleanse, tone and moisturise. Oh no. I decided I'd use a face mask! This was for real. Now, it should be known that the only face mask I could find had been hiding in my cupboard for months, perhaps even years. I knew this as I opened the packet, but thought "Hmmm, can't be too bad, what could poossibly go wrong?" and completely ignored the little "You'll regret this." voice.

Well. I suppose that tiny little cautious feeling within me should have been taken more seriously:

There I was, defiant and ready to apply the [won't say any names] "product". I followed the instructions; I avoided the hairline, eye area and mouth area and I smeared the stuff (which may be compared to gunk) all over my pretty face. It hadn't even been on my face for 30 seconds when the burning feeling had me wondering how soon I should be taking it off. "Leave on for 10 minutes." read the instructions...
"10 MINUTES?! Well," I thought "if this is supposed to be on my face for 10 minutes, is it supposed to be burning me despite it only being on my face for less than 1?" I knew the burn that was suddenly penetrating my skin wasn't the usual soothing sensation I had been looking for. My mind stared racing: "Did it do this last time? Yes. OK not really. Last time it was a soothing tingle and a different product that had been bought the day before - this is decades old and seems to be burning - not tingling!"
So, I (not so) calmly turned on the tap with shaky hands and washed the darn thing off - I was sure the manufacturers didn't intend on their clients enduring 10 minutes of such a sensation and I wondered what the result of my enduring 2 would be...

Well, at first everything looked fine. But the blinds were down. So, I flipped them up and turned to the mirror a second time, to see myself in the light. I was met by an expectant tomato-faced girl who seemed to be saying "What has happened to my face?!" I was briefly amused by her worried expression until I realised I was looking at me! In that moment I may have been compared to an orange-faced teen from Jersey Shore, except the difference was: I hadn't had a say in the matter! My face was bright red and burning and it looked as though I'd fallen asleep in the sun. What made things worse? I had pale circles around my eyes and mouth and a distinct line right before my hairline where the face mask hadn't been spread... I looked ridiculous. At that moment, my sister got home and burst into laughter - I did too but then I started crying. Of course, I'm very dramatic, which only made things more traumatising!

Anyways! My sweet sister  prepared an ice-cold, rooibos-soaked face cloth which I left on my face for what felt like hours; after removing it I was back to my lilly-white self but I found myself to be a at a loss for words and dignity. "What were you thinking?" my sister asked.

"I have no idea." was my fruitful response.

So - today I learnt a whole lot in the most traumatic 3-or-so hours of my week... Firstly, don't use expired face masks; secondly, listen to the feeling that says "don't use expired face masks." and finally: a soothing tingle and a deep burn are two entirely different sensations!

But the real point of this message was not to alert everyone of my ditsy moment, rather, it was to draw a few examples...

We are blessed with knowledge (because two certain people (*cough* *cough* - Adam, Eve...) decided to eat off of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil...) and we are thus able to distinguish between right and wrong; good and bad; silly and smart. So why do we ignore it [knowledge] anyways?! I'm not really referring to the face mask anymore... I'm talking about smearing our hearts in sin even though we have that cautious little feeling that says "This is wrong - perhaps I shouldn't do it." So why do we ignore God? Because inevitably that's what we're doing when we ignore that voice. If we have the audacity to ignore our Creator, I'd assume we don't really fear him and therfore our lack of knowledge is explained...

"Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." See?

 Did anyone else just have an "Ah-ha!" moment? I did! So, my challeng for the week: Take Courage, suck up your pride and realise that you really should be God Fearing! I mean really - this Alpha is capable of anything (technically He made that face mask and He was the cautious little voice saying "Don't use it, Missy, it's expired..." - that's made me God fearing...)