Sailing high off of day 2 success I woke up early, pulled out my Bible and begin a word study on Discipline.
As with many other word studies I've started (and not finished, of course) I stopped at the second reference in my concordance - Deu 4:36 "From heaven He made you hear His voice to discipline you.", while this scripture alone is quite powerful, it was actually the surrounding text that captivated me. In verses 32-39 Moses is again reminding the Israelites about what God had done for them, the miracles and deliverance from the Egyptians. Despite their journey, the parting of the Red Sea, the Manna that rained down from Heaven AND ALL THE OTHER COOL STUFF; they needed reminding (v39) "Acknowledge and take heart..that the Lord is God....There is no other". I am an Israelite! I'm way to quick to forget what God has done for me and how He has delivered me from many a Pharaoh.
After reading this over and over I was fired up and empowered to have a great day - Denying myself with joy!
Then I got to camp......
As you know, sweets (particularly quality ice cream) is my addiction. I come from a long line of ice cream connoisseurs. We not only love ice cream, we are ice cream snobs! Vocally belittling all ice creams made with more then the 5 ingredients us purist recognize - milks (whole), eggs, sugar (white), cream (heavier the better), and berries, chocolate etc. I remember growing up we went to the Ice Cream parlour as often as we went to school. Now with Diabetes rampant in my family we try not to turn every family outing into a hunt for the best cream in town, often times we fail.
Back to camp. Yesterday I proudly declined an offer for animal crackers - it wasn't even a thought. Well, today was cleary a new day. Today when we reached that stupid snack room all I could think about was that hard, flat, crumby animal crackers!
Those silly crackers weren't warm, moist, or even covered in ice cream BUT there I stood craving the elephant that lay within arms reach. The shameful part of it is that animal crackers were not even on the menu today, nevertheless, their visibility alone made me weak. I could hear the lion calling my name and I wanted to answer. Totally off-guard and taken by surprise I found myself using all the strength I had not to ask for a cookie. Looking around the room I searched for someone to tell my story to: someone to tell me that "I could do it" say that, "the cookie was not worth it". It quickly became clear that the 5 year olds looking back at me were not going to lead me thru temptation. I was all alone!
I'm happy to report that the lion and elephant did not break me! Those 5 year olds and their need for pretzel and water refills kept me too busy to get that cookie and I'm grateful!
And because I'm a bit of a gloater...I took my kids out for frozen yogurt and easily declined that too....take that temptation! You better come with something better tomorrow.
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