My oldest is home from school sick today. He likes to watch old westerns, so he's lounging around, coughing and hacking, watching a little John Wayne on this rainy Monday. I'm not one for westerns, but I had stopped between loads of laundry to visit with him a minute. i ended up getting a big lesson out of it.
The western he's watching is called Red River. Apparently John Wayne and some other ranchers are taking cattle to Missouri to market. Well, there is one cowboy that loves sweets and is always sneaking a pinch of sugar. The old man who runs the chuck wagon is always getting after him to stay out of it. (I'm a lot like that cowboy...I guess my conscience runs the chuck wagon.)
Anyway, one night they're stopped and all the cattle are asleep. The fella goes to sneak a little more sugar (sounds like an evening snack to me) and bumps into a pot. The noise panics the cows and causes a stampede. When it's all over, over 300 head of cattle are lost and one man is trampled to death.
All over a sweet tooth.
That hit close to home. How often do I see my "sweet tooth" as something harmless? I need to see it as an addiction which would be a lot more accurate. My little snacks here and there do have disastrous consequences--at the scale, with my self-image, with the example I'm setting for my children.
The cowboy who causes all the trouble has to live with the effects of his actions. I'll have to live with mine. Maybe now's a good time for me to step away from the sugar bag before my life "stampedes" into diabetes or obesity or the problems weight gain can cause my asthma.
I'm glad John Wayne showed me just how serious "a little something sweet" can be.
A new on-line Bible study is starting tonight called Made to Crave. It's a free live webcast and I'd signed up a couple of months ago but haven't been really excited about it. It's about craving God instead of food.
I guess I wasn't getting the message the first time so He gave me a visual illustration. Now I'll be sure I'm sitting at my computer at 8:00 p.m. tonight. I don't have the web address in front of me, but you can search Made to Crave and find it.
Maybe I'll meet you there...if you too need to step away from the chuck wagon.
1 comment:
UGHHH.. thanks for the visual Kel...you are such a great teacher.. whether intended or not.. maybe I'll be on tha site at 8 myself..since it seems to have smacked my square in the "saddle bags" if you'll excuse the pun.. luv ya .. and miss you awful...as part of my"personal" tribute to Mike.. when you come up next time.. we ARE going to lunch...(a healthy one of course)..:)
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