Mislabeled

You probably wouldn't believe a label reading, "chocolate milk" if it was placed on a gallon of bleach. That kind of ignorance would be foolish. Realistically however, we mislabel many other things and convince ourselves that the improper label is the correct identifier regardless of what we are truly seeing.

• We mislabel divisive conversation as helpful criticism.
  
• We mislabel malignant gossip as prayerful concern.
  
• We mislabel sporadic generosity to ease personal guilt as genuine compassion for others.
  
• We mislabel once-a-week attendance as faithful Christianity.
  
• We mislabel societal dysfunction as the norm because it is widely accepted.
  
• We mislabel lustful glances & adulterous flirting as harmless, friendly interaction.
  
• We mislabel deliberate sinfulness as acceptable because it's "not that bad."

We have two choices: blindly follow poorly labeled practices and let their misnomer fool us into a false sense of what is good or we can recognize what is wrong and make the correction in our own lives first. Just because a label makes us feel better about ourselves doesn't mean it's actually good for us. 

A candy coated poison pill tastes better going down, but it will still kill you.