Upheld in the Peach Principle

Discernment

Sometimes it is hard to discern truth from lies. We all have the dickens of a time sorting through social media, newsfeeds and other sources to find the truth treasure somewhere in the trunk.

How many Facebook posts do you read to the bottom only to find it’s no nugget of truth, but fiction? Or how about all those 45 minute video ads? I doubt there is anyone who has not been frustrated and just given up.

What about the news on TV? Much of the time it gets turned off in disgust. Whatever happened to just reporting the news? Just the facts, Ma’am.

Fresh, Canned, and Trashed

Okay, bear with me now. I really am going somewhere with this.

I used to do a lot of fruit and vegetable canning. I admired the colorful, luscious fruits and vegetables as I strolled along aisle after aisle at the Farmer’s Market trying to decide which boxes to take home. I always thought the peaches were the prettiest. Sunset colors of pinkish yellows and gold made those peaches look plump and juicy and so they proved to be when we got them home and shoved them into our mouths, sticky juice sliding down our chins.

Hot August and September afternoons steamed by as I worked in the sauna-like kitchen. My face usually rivaled the color of those peaches before I finished. Yet the pride of a job well done when I saw that bright, beautiful golden fruit in jars on my shelves was worth the work. I knew my family would enjoy that fruit over the winter.

Sometimes before I got them all canned, I’d pick up a nice, round peach only to turn it over to see a gray fuzzy beard attached to its other side. UGH! UGH! And MORE UGH! It found its way to the trash can in a mighty hurry! GROSS!

The Peach Principle

By now, you have probably figured out what I call the Peach Principle. Some things are meant to act on now, other things are put away for later use, still other things sport gray fuzzy beards and are fit only for the trash.

Using good filters will help us to live sensible and mature lives, able to enjoy God’s creation and relate well to others. Common sense tells us the reliable paths to follow. Laws govern our behavior. And the Bible gives us all we really need to know about how to live. Just read Proverbs to find wisdom. I promise you will.

We can monitor what we watch, listen to and read. Orange/gray fuzzy beards are meant to be tossed into the mental trash can. Right along with phones—or not.

“When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things” (Proverbs 2:10-12 NKJV).