I recently made a silly mistake. And although it won’t have any long-term material consequences, my pride is bruised.

The other day, I was sitting at my computer, actually writing a post for this blog, when my computer screen was taken over by a pop-up message. It kept blinking and then started speaking to me, saying that my computer had been hacked and that I needed to call the number on the screen to regain control. Now I know what you’re thinking—scam alert. But at that moment, I panicked.

I’m a new Apple computer owner, and although I’ve read, and perhaps deep down inside knew, that Apple tech doesn’t reach out to its users, I called. After several minutes on the phone and my husband walking in and hearing a portion of the conversation, I realized exactly what was happening. And it made me angry. I was angry at myself for falling for such an obvious lie, but I was ticked off at the individual on the other end of the line. Because deep down inside, I knew I wasn’t the only victim.

I went to my phone and confirmed the pop-up was a scam. There was a litany of information providing warnings about what not to do and what to do, and unfortunately, I did all of the wrong things. 

Ladies, doing those “wrong things” haunted me for several days. Sitting here right now and even writing about it still gives me a little angst. I blame myself for placing our home security and financial accounts in jeopardy. It was a mindless move on my part. But my husband is so sweet. He’s very supportive and kept reassuring me that everything was fine. After checking our accounts multiple times, calling our bank, and scanning our computers for viruses, I finally relaxed. Everything came back clean, but deep down inside, I knew there were other victims out there that didn’t come out so well. Individuals who panicked, responded to the instructions, and took the bait. They offered up their credit card numbers and were cheated out of their money. So, ladies, it was a big lesson that taught me three things.

First, when hit with something unfamiliar, something that causes you to have that little sense of panic, stop, don’t rush. Just stop, take a deep breath and pray. Pray for God’s clarity. Pray for his direction. Pray that you have the right attitude as you move forward. Once you’ve prayed, it’s time to take step #2.

Talk to somebody. What I should’ve done was walk into my husband’s office and ask him about the weird pop-up screen on my computer. Because what he would’ve said is, “It’s a scam!” If I had stopped, talked with somebody, and then done a little bit of research, all of those articles about what to do and not do would have appeared, and I would’ve saved myself some real grief and emotional turmoil. But instead, I rushed and took things into my own hands.

The final step looks something like this. For days, I walked around beating myself up because, again, I had placed us at risk. It was difficult for me to just let it go. Remember, I checked our accounts and computers multiple times and read so many articles that I could run a tech support center. I was driving myself crazy with the information. And the information overload was pushing me towards more and more guilt. It was my fault, and I was pretty silly for falling for such an obvious hustle. So, step three would encourage you to cut yourself some slack. The perfectionist in all of us would condemn. But the truth is we are all human, imperfect, and completely capable of failing. It is what we do with those failures that is important. We can choose to learn from them or allow them to overpower our identity. 

Gretchen Saffles shares in her book, The Well-Watered Woman, 

“You won’t do everything perfectly—God already knows that. That’s why he sent his perfect Son to die in your place. You are in process, but God sees the end result. Trust him with the moments in between.”

Ladies, regardless of where you find yourself today, I hope you can trust God with the in-between. I pray you hear his gentle whisper and find peace and rest for your day.

Be blessed, 

P.S. There is one thing I wish I could do. I wish I could talk to the young man on the other end of that phone, whose heart was bent on manipulation and deceit. I’d love to tell him that God loves him. I’d encourage him to change and remind him there are innocent people hurt by his thoughtless actions. But the odds are against me ever talking to him. I do wonder if one day he will come face-to-face with God. And during that encounter, God asks him to explain his behavior that daunting morning. I just wonder what he’ll say.