Proverbs 21:6

Making a fortune by a lying tongue is like a vapor driven back and forth;
they seek death.

I’ve always struggled with my weight. Even as a kid I was one of the bigger kids around. I look back at pictures and realize that I wasn’t as fat as I thought I was. But, I was big enough to be picked on for it. So, like many Americans, I wanted a quick fix to be fit and in shape. I didn’t want to actually put in the work to do it the right way, I just wanted to results.

Growing up in small-town Ohio, there wasn’t a lot to do during the day during the summer. Unless you were cool and had a bunch of friends to hang out with (which I wasn’t), you could either go roam the aisles of Walmart or stay at home and watch TV. Well, once the price is right is over, there’s not a whole lot on besides soap operas. Especially after the noon news. So, I’d end up watching infomercials in the early afternoons until reruns of the Flintstones would come on.

One of those infomercials that I saw enough times to be convinced was for some sort of ab machine. It was different. All the other machines just helped you do the same old ab workout. But this one forced you to try to do the workout in a different way. You held it up against your abs and then used your abs to push it out. You could adjust the tension as you got stronger.

So, I convinced mom that we needed one. And we got one. I did it for a week or two, but when I didn’t see the results that I was promised, I quickly lost my drive to do it. It spent the rest of my years at home sitting in a corner. Yes it was one of those “Results may vary” products, but I was convinced I was going to be like the guy in the informercial. And when that didn’t happen right away…

Sure, it probably would have made a difference to my abs if I had kept on doing it. But at the same time, it was a pretty flimsy piece of plastic that was pretending to be a piece of workout equipment.

I was sold the moon and what arrived was one of those pens where the moon comes out when you flip it upside down. Needless to say, I did not become a salesperson for this product. And I don’t think I’ve ordered another product off of TV.

That’s what happens when you lie to get ahead in business and life in general. I bought the lies and was determined to never again make that mistake. It’s not like this thing was cheap. I think it was 70 bucks! They may have made a fortune, but I bet it didn’t last long.

My results sure didn’t.