The past few days have been a real struggle for me to not eat the things I told myself I wasn’t going to eat. I have been eating healthy and drinking a lot of water. I made a decision to not eat fast food, greasy or fatty foods. This also includes sugary foods.
While I could munch on chips and fried chicken any day… sugar is my real weakness. I cannot resist chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies with icing or donuts. Of course yesterday we received some Shamrock Shaped iced sugar cookies with one of our supply orders.
Every time I walked in the back to put things away I was tempted to eat one. However I chose to not eat one. While the cookie is pretty and will be tasty for a moment, I will end up regretting it and that is something far worse than being tempted by the cookies.
Today we had a large work meeting and guess what was in the kitchen when I walked in… donuts!!! I love donuts. I love glazed, sprinkled, chocolate, cinnamon, powdered, and Boston crème filled. It has been so hard not to eat one!!! AHHH!
It got me thinking about other things in life. Sin may appear pretty and will come in a form that appears attractive to us. However we must see past that and realize that it is not worth it. When we sin we are hurting our relationship with God. Sin takes us farther away from God. Just like by me eating that cookie it will take me farther away from my goal and my commitment. Once I eat that cookie or donut I will say well I already did that might as well eat another or might as well eat KFC and drink huge Pepsi since I already made one mistake. What is three or four more?
It can snow ball farther and farther. It’s like sin. We can do one little thing and then keep going until we have let something small snowball into something big and we are so far off the path we cannot find the way back.
Jesus got baptized (Matthew 3) and immediately after the devil tempted him. He fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He was hungry. The devil tempted him to turn a stone into bread. Jesus didn’t. He instead told the devil that man shouldn’t live by bread alone, but every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4)
Jesus went through temptation to show us that it can be done without giving in to it. He may have been God’s son but he was in human form and any human that hadn’t eaten in 40 days and nights would be hungry. It would be tempting to turn the stone into bread, but Jesus didn’t.
While eating cookies and donuts isn’t a sin, me eating one would have been breaking the commitment I made with myself. When we sin we break our vow to be Christ like. Christ never sinned. We are not perfect and that is why God sent his only son to this world to die in our place. He knew we would make mistakes. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. When we sin we have an advocate. We can pray and ask God to forgive us when we mess up.
The important thing is when you sin or fall off track, don’t quit! Ask God to forgive you when you sin and when you break a commitment to yourself, forgive yourself. Get back on the way of the Lord and get back on track! When we fall the most important step is getting back up.
I hope that when you fall you will get back up and keep on keeping on! Remember be strong in temptation and do not fall into it. You can do it!!! If I can pass up a cookie you can pass up something that is tempting to you!
Love from above!
Iva Mae
LIES FROM THE MIRROR 