The Careful Walk

       Working on a farm has its daily hazards.  All kind of things could go wrong or cause you to have a problem.  Many are just nuisance things.  One of the hazards of farm life is watching where you step especially if you have a few milk cows.  We had a total of 16 cows to milk twice a day which often left big deposits on the ground that you had to dodge or really have some messed up shoes.  Your steps were constantly being adjusted to avoid a certain area on the ground.  The same thing exists if you are in the military and are in a location that has a lot of mines planted in the ground.   Ephesians 5:15 says, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,"   
       We all have studied about the "walks" that are mentioned in the last three chapters of the Book of Ephesians.  This verse speaks of the "circumspectful" walk.  In other words it is the walk that is also translated as being a "careful" walk.  If you are in a mine field, you are "careful" where you go.  There are countless other illustrations of the "careful" walk such as where you put your foot down in a freshly planted garden.  If I stepped too close to a freshly planted tomato plant, I would hear about it quickly.  Paul here reminds us in the Book of Ephesians that our behavior should be one that is "careful" in all that we do.  When you couple this verse with several in the Book of James, you soon discover that we need to take great care in what we say and what we do and how we react to situations all around us.   One famous preacher described this walk as a person who was walking in a mine field.  You don't want to have one of those situations where you say, "oops."  The same thing applies in our daily Christian experience.  You can't take back what you said or how you responded to a statement that someone made.  It's too late.  So, when Paul remarks about the circumspectful walk he is reminding us of always being on guard and to respond as the LORD would have us respond.  My father had an expression which I have used before that went, "Put your mind in gear before you put your mouth in motion."  As Paul would say, "Walk  circumspectly."  Praise God for His instructions for living the daily Christian life.