Please Pass the Sugar by Dena Wilkinson

While growing up in Illinois in the late 60's, 70's and early 80's, my siblings and I ate pretty simplistic breakfasts each morning. Mom didn't get up and fix bacon and eggs, or pancakes and waffles except once in a while on a Saturday. Unfortunately, we were cereal people—Corn Flakes, Kix, Shredded Wheat (a perfect cereal for low-key people, but definitely not for me), and other fairly bland brands. In order to mask the taste, I would add a teaspoon or more of sugar to the top before pouring on the milk. But there was really no way to help Shredded Wheat.

As the years went by, medical professionals started sticking their noses where they didn't belong and told gullible parents that the excessive use of sugar was bad for our health. So, our parents, ever diligent in raising healthy kids, encouraged us—or rather, told us—to cut back. Life, I mean cereal, just wasn't the same.

I've found that our attitude of sin is like that unsweetened cereal. We tempt the sinful taste buds by taking the harsh taste of guilt out of it by sugar-coating it; we make it palatable. We have become so lax in what God desires of us that we have fooled ourselves into thinking that our sins are not really sins at all, but rather an acceptable form of behavior in a world reeling from immorality and Godlessness. We even make sin more enticing to our children by what we allow them to watch on television, or by the music they are allowed to listen to in their rooms or elsewhere. Many Christians are duped into believing that what they view on TV does not affect them or their children. They will watch an R-rated movie because it was "based on an actual event and was quite informative." That concept is the very idea of sweetening the acceptance of sin into a more desirable taste.

We are in the middle of a vicious war and we can't have our own soldiers going over enemy lines to see what is turning on our adversary. We ought to know by now. We should be filling our hearts and minds with God's word and then living it out to the fullest. That's why I find it so exciting to hear of all those in our community who are feeding on the sweetness of God's Word by reading through the Bible this year either chronologically or in book order. That is the only way to satisfy your cravings long term—by the Living Word!!