There was a Halloween Day potluck where I work. There were soups of all kinds, chips and dips, salads, and desserts … lots of desserts. The food hung around the office for the remainder of the week. Every time I’d go into the breakroom, there they were on the table and in the fridge. Desserts. Sugary, luscious, rich desserts and cookies! Lots and lots of cookies. I like desserts. I like cookies. They, however, do not like me.
At this stage in life I am paying the price for liking desserts way too much. Sugar is not a friend. Carbohydrates have morphed into enemies. My glucometer (which measures the sugar in my blood) now reigns over my menu.
Yet, in the breakroom, there they sat for days, desserts calling me. You would think by this time in life I would also have developed some self-control. Nope – not enough when it comes to desserts.
Self-control. Peter tells us in his second letter that self-control (temperance in the KJV) is one of the virtues to be added to our faith. First goodness. Then knowledge. Then self-control. “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control….” [2 Peter 1:5-6]
Self-control doesn’t sound like a virtue to me, especially since it begins with that little word “self.” I didn’t think there was any virtue in “self.” So, is biblical self-control simply the self-generated willpower to resist our “self” desires and curb our natural impulses – like I must do when I walk into that breakroom and start to salivate over those desserts? Or is it more than that, much more than that?
It is more – much more! More tomorrow!
