So I heard a great sermon this weekend on temptation. It talked about the dialogue we have in our minds when we are faced with temptation - and how we 'justify' our bad choices with promises of obedience later.
I thought about my food conversations in my head and realized I was reallllly good at caving in to temptation. "If I eat this donut, I'll work out extra!" or "Everyone's having dessert, I don't want to be rude so I'll have some too." or the worst "Oh, I'll eat these cookies and I'll start my diet again tomorrow." Then 2 cookies turns into 6 or 10. Yes, I'm talking about ME.
Anyway - temptation is real. It happens. Every person is tempted to do things they shouldn't do. That's part of the human experience. So don't feel bad about being tempted.
But whenever temptation is there - there is also A WAY OUT. Every. Single. Time. You can walk away. You can say "No thank you!" You can get up from the table and start washing dishes. You can throw the food temptation into the trash.
Every time we give in to food temptation - we are hurting ourselves. And we are also being disobedient to God, we're treating our bodies poorly. The sermon said this: Anytime we give in to temptation and it causes us to be disobedient - that's called sin. *Ouch* - That HURT my feelings hearing that. It's not just small little stuff that God doesn't mind. It's sin. And once I got my brain around that - temptation no longers seems as sweet.