Disgusting behavior. We see it all the time in others. Whether it be selfishness, arrogance, disrespectfulness, irresponsibilty, rudeness, insensitivity, carelessness, thoughtlessness, jealousy…the list goes on…But have we all really looked at ourselves? We know ourselves better than anyone. Or do we? How well do you know the person in the mirror? Probly not as well as you think.
We’ve all heard of the 7 deadly sins, right? Maybe some have heard the term, “The 7 deadly sins” but don’t know what they are. Maybe some know what they are but don’t know what they mean…or what they all mean. Like me, for instance. I’ve known for quite some time that the 7 deadly sins are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. I actually learned that in about 1996 when the movie “Se7en” with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman came out. Thirteen years later, it finally dawns on me…What is sloth and how can gluttony be a sin? Well, I jumped on the information superhighway and found out. If you have any desire to see yourself in a different light or to see yourself as others may, I’m going to define each of the cardinal sins and I hope you can try to associate yourself with each of the 7 deadly sins, as I have, to see just what kind (or kinds!) of a sinner you really are. Of course there’s always a chance you may learn that you really are a saint…or at least a saint that makes excuses for themself in the privacy of their own mind.

All righty then…here we go…

LUST

Lust is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature. I’M GUILTY ALREADY! I have lusted a time or two (hundred!) In fact, I still lust often as my man is very attractive! But, here’s the real deal. These seven deadly sins have been around since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers of man’s tendency to sin. So, the purpose of pointing out what lust is was to teach the importance of not letting your love for sex make your love for God secondary. Furthermore, giving in to lust can lead to sexual or sociological compulsions including sexual addiction, adultry, bestiality, rape, perversion and incest which are all in fact big no-no’s and we all know it. So, I don’t sit around and think about having any kind of sex with whoever (or whatever!), whether they are willing or not, whether they are related to me or not MORE than I love God. I’m not an extremely religious person but I do believe in God and love I Him more than I want to think about having sex with relatives, strangers or animals! When I learned what lust as one of the seven deadly sins really consisted of, I came to the conclusion that my random thoughts of sex with my man does not make me a sinner.

GLUTTONY

Here’s one I wondered about as I said earlier. I always pictured a glutton as one who was not only disgustingly obese from constantly shoving food into their already full mouth while making grunting sounds and letting crumbs and chunks fall into their lap, but also as one who carries a foul crotchy stench because of their inability to wash between their rolls. Was your visualization the same as mine at all? The word “gluttony” derived from some Latin word meaning “to gulp down”. It’s the over-indulgence of anything to the point of waste. Again, long ago in the Christian religion, it was considered a sin because of the excessive desire for food, or its withholding from the needy. I read that there was a midevil church leader that went so far as to prepare a list of six ways to commit gluttony. They were eating too fast, eating too much, eating too soon, eating too wildly, eating too expensively and eating too daintily. So, I give food to charity once in a while, I don’t shovel my food in where it looks disgusting (unless, of course, I’m alone in the kitchen at 3am with Oreos and milk!), I sometimes eat fast or too soon, I guess, but not to the point I feel like I may get struck by lightening, and I surely don’t eat too expensively. We go to the steak house twice a year, eat take-n-bake pizza once a week and go to Burger King once a month. Now since excessiveness is the key word here, I don’t think me and my Oreo eating ways will be damned for being a glutton. (Even though I do feel guilty when I wake up in the morning with chocolate around my lips and under my fingernails!)

GREED

This is the easy one…everyone knows what greed is so I’m not going to go into it too much. Shame on you if you are greedy. Learn to share already, jeez! Sharing is one of the first things your mama tries to teach you! If she didn’t then shame on her, too!

SLOTH

Yay. I finally know what sloth means. It’s laziness with a twist. Way back when, people were only lazy when they were unhappy, dissatisfied and discontent. Basicly, they would become lazy because they were depressed. You would be condemned for being sad because your lack of joy was regarded as a wilful refusal to enjoy the goodness of God and the world God created. When I learned all about sloth, the first thing I thought of is, “Wow…too bad they didn’t have prozac back then!” I didn’t have to think too long about whether or not I commit the sin of sloth. Just because I’m not very productive every single day of my life doesn’t mean that I’m depressed and it surely doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate this world or my life. I am very happy and content and I couldn’t ask for anything more than what I have. So, I feel it’s safe to say that I’m not a sloth. At least not excessivly, right?

WRATH

Uh-oh! Now I may be in a little trouble. Wrath is described as uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. It leads us to plot and sometimes carry out revenge and generally wishing to do evil or harm to others. Wrath can make us commit assault and murder or at least just think about it which is supposedly bad enough. I have been so mad several times in my life that I shake and feel sick and blackout as I have verbally beat someone down by saying things that later made me feel bad. I have blasted annoying sounds on my stereo in revenge on my old neighbors and I still think that it was funny because they were high on crystal meth when I did it. I was about to say that I’ve never wanted anyone dead. Then I thought about Joe Kondro. He is a guy here in my hometown of Longview, Washington who kidnapped, raped and bludgeoned 8-year-old Rima Traxler to death then did it again to Kara Rudd several years later. I want that sickening excuse for a person, and others like him, to either die or live a painful, terrorizing life before they die…slowly. So, yes, wrath is a sin that I can’t reason my way out of because it is excessive and I can’t change my mind.

ENVY

Like greed, envy may be characterized by an insatiable desire. They differ, however, for two main reasons. First, greed is largely associated with material goods, where as envy may apply more generally. Second, those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it. I’m sure we’ve all felt envious to some extent. Seriously, ladies, tell me you’ve never wanted to be as skiny and/or as pretty as someone else. Maybe it’s their money or their boyfriend that you wish you had. And guys, ever really wanted “that guys” bank roll or his hot rod? Maybe his girlfriend or his charisma that helped him get her? Come on now. We all have to say yes! But do we also want these people in which we are envious to lose what they have to make ourselves feel better? I can say, “No, Sir!” and be real about it. I honestly don’t want Angelina Jolie to wake up fat and ugly tomorrow. I would never shove a good friend out of my life just because she was happy and had a nice house. That’s ridiculous! I don’t choose to put myself around others that I feel aren’t doing so well just to make myself feel superior. To me, doing these things or anything like them would be very disgusting and weak. I’m sorry for those of you out there who can’t help but feel this way. You will more than likely be old and alone someday. To me, that would be living hell. When reading about all of this, I found out that in Dante’s theory of purgatory, the punishment for the envious is to have their eyes sewn shut with wire because they have gained sinful pleasure from seeing others brought low. OUCH!

PRIDE

Pride is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins and indeed the ultimate source from which the others arise. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self (especially holding self out of proper position toward God). We all have also seen how revolting the vain and self-righteous look and act. So when you say, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” and “I’m not a snob, I’m just better than you”, I sincerely hope that you are just joking. Realisticly, we probly shouldn’t joke like that since those jokes are old and not funny anymore anyway. So give it up. It’s ugly.

So there you go! Did you give it an honest shot? Did you try to really see yourself? I realize that I’m not perfect, but a cardinal sinner? I don’t think so. Although, someone else might think I’ve got one foot in the gates of hell already. I don’t expect anyone to admit out loud here that they fall into the extreme end of any of the seven deadly sins. I just thought that maybe I would be able to point out something to someone, even if only one person, that would change the way they will see themself to make them a better person which in turn might make either someone else or the person in the mirror smile a little more often.