From In the Steps of Moses:

"We sat down by the edge of the (Dead) Sea, and wondered
at it a little. The smell of it was rank, there was a
dirty scud over the shallow water close in, and the
driftwood on the dun gravel we sat on was black and
oily. Yet, from far off, no water looks lovelier than
the water of the Dead Sea, kingfisher blue, turquoise
blue, lazuline blue, as the caprice of light is. All
sin is like that, murmured Father Dunn. Very gay
from a distance, but a sad thing close to."

How I long to teach my children to avoid those places
in their lives where sin can easily overtake them. I
know that sin is ever crouching at the door; I realize
it springs up out of the passion of the moment. Those
angry words I rattled off, those unkind bullets I shot
off, that bitterness that will take root and rule my
thoughts and feelings, they all catch me unaware. They
spring from my nature.

But there are places and times that are prime for sin to
occur, places where you know you are too weak to go. That
is what Scripture speaks to when it says to flee temptation.
Those places look inviting from a distance, but they are
pools of deadness close to.