Have you ever gone to the store hungry? Believe me it is one of the worst things you can do. If I had any advice to give anyone, it would be; make a list before you go to the store and stick to it! Often you don’t have the luxury of deciding when you will go to the store. You may be on your way home from work, and you are just going to stop for a few things for supper. The hitch comes because you are so hungry everything smells good, and looks good. You are tired and can’t make up your mind about what to serve for supper. So you start to add things to your basket. A little of this, a couple of these, and that, and soon the basket is brimming. You are on your way to the checkout when it hits you, there is nothing in this cart for dinner, but there are several kinds of ice cream, snack cakes, chips, and dips, along with a variety of sodas. As nonchalantly as you can, you start your second trek around the store discreetly putting all the junk food back on the shelves. This is strictly a survival move, because you know if you take this stuff home, you will eat it!
After coming to your senses you buy a rotisserie chicken for dinner, since you no longer have any time to cook. That time being eaten up returning all your mindless foraging. You go to your car shaking your head thinking how you barley dodged that bullet of indulgences.
Why do we do things like that? We know better, it is almost as if our wills have been snatched and we are mindless robots choosing everything bad for us. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing, usually done in moderation that will hurt you. But where does moderation stop and gluttony begin? Is it one teaspoon, on one day or several times a day, or until there is nothing left, except you sitting in the corner with an empty container saying, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!”?
We are a society of instant gratification. There was a time, if we wanted a piece of cake or pie, we would have to bake it ourselves. By the time we finished all the prep and seasoning, and testing and baking, we no longer wanted to eat the whole pie. In fact, often times we didn’t want any at all. That was a pretty good deterrent against over indulging.
With fancy bakeries, and fast food places on every corner, junk food is so easily accessible, we don’t always realize when we get a doughnut here and a brownie there, and a big gulp to wash it down. Common sense must return if we are going to regain any control over our ‘boy that sounds good’ cravings. After all it isn’t healthy and it doesn’t make you happy. It is hard to be a testimony if we fail every test of willpower.
As parents it is our job to help our children grow happy and healthy. Teaching them their bodies are living temples of God. Keeping junk food out of the house is one way to avoid having to tell them no when their cravings hit. Keep healthy foods in the house, and make the occasional indulgence a reward for a job well done. We again, must teach this by example, so let’s keep our new year’s resolutions if in fact this is one of them.
We as authors have been known to get a brain freeze, so we wander around trying to unlock our minds. Unfortunately our wanderings often take us through the kitchen and into a grazing mode. To avoid this, keep a small jar of nuts, or a small bowl of fruit nearby for times like this. Here is to a better year, and a more productive you!
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
Philippians 3:19
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
Proverbs 23:2, 20-21
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
I Corinthians 3:16-17