“Deceive Me Not (excerpts),” New Era, Nov. 2019, 40–41.
Deceive Me Not (excerpts)
Years ago, I arrived home from work and was startled to see white paint splattered everywhere—on the ground, the garage door, and our red-brick house. I inspected the scene more closely and discovered the paint was still wet. A trail of paint led toward the backyard, and so I followed it. There, I found my five-year-old son with a paintbrush in his hand, chasing our dog. Our beautiful black Labrador was splattered almost half white!
“What are you doing?” I asked in an animated voice.
My son stopped, looked at me, looked at the dog, looked at the paintbrush dripping with paint, and said, “I just want him to look like the black-spotted dogs in the movie—you know, the one with 101 Dalmatians.”
I loved our dog. I thought he was perfect, but that day my son had a different idea. …
… Our young son had a beautiful dog as a pet; notwithstanding, he grabbed a gallon of paint and, with paintbrush in hand, determined to create his own imagined reality.
… [This is a story] of mistaken identity—presuming the real thing to be something else. In [this] case, the consequences were minor.
However, many today grapple with these same issues on a much larger scale. They are either unable to see things as they truly are or are unsatisfied with truth. …
Satan … has spent millennia calculating and practicing the ability to persuade God’s children to believe that good is evil and evil is good. …
How might you find this heavenly help … and not be deceived or give in to temptation? …
The way is simple. Through His servants, God speaks to us, His children, and gives us commandments. …
As we obey [the Lord’s] commandments, we will always be led in the right way and will not be deceived.