M-G: 6.4.19 // Christ Over Chocolate

As I was leaving the doctor’s office, I stopped by to briefly chat with the receptionist as was customary for me to do. She had a collection of small bottles in her office which is how our platonic relationship was established, revolving around the bottle! I call her Miss Apothecary though she is married and has children.

We talked about the prospect of rain later in the week, and she told me that that was okay “as long as it doesn’t rain on Saturday for her four-year-old son’s birthday party.” She showed me a picture of him, and I immediately thought that I was looking at Dennis the Menace! Naturally, I didn’t tell her that! He was a cute sandy blonde-haired kid who looked as if he was full of energy waiting to burst forth. I did comment that “He looked like a handful.” She immediately acknowledged, “You have no idea!” She continued, “We cannot tell our son anything because he knows everything! I interjected, “My son was the same way!”  

She shared with me, “It was just the other day my four-year-old was having a conversation with his Daddy, and said, ‘We need some chocolate to fix our attitude!’” I questioned her, “Your son said that to his father?” She replied, “Yep, it came from out of nowhere! We have no idea where he got it from.” “That is too funny,” I chuckled.

It reminded me of Art Linkletter’s, Kids Say the Darndest Things. “You got a negotiator on your hands, Miss Apothecary!” As I was leaving, I thanked her for sharing this with me; it made me smile.

As I was walking to my car, I thought about what that kid said to his father, “We need some chocolate to fix our attitude.” Now, I don’t want to read into that expression any more than at face value, but I was impressed by it!

Have you ever thought this way, “I could use something sweet right about now (whenever for whatever reason)?” I am thinking literally like this young boy, but not something so brief as chocolate, which comes and leaves with the tasting, but Someone, like Christ, that truly satisfies, leaving a lingering taste for more. Read the words of the weeping prophet,

Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts (Jer 15:16).

Not every moment is a sweet moment that triggers a craving for a break in the bland, tasteless, unsweet, and undelightful times. If we are not careful, too much sugar has a way of undermining our health. The hunger for the sweetness of our Savior is spiritually healthy that turns our attitude in such a way that alleviates those things that are detrimental to our physical well-being like stress, worry, depression, and anxiety.

When unsweet times begin to dominate our thinking, it should alert us that something is not right in our relationship with God. The first forfeiture is the peace that passes all understanding, the peace of God; you feel unsettled in every way imaginable. Sinful thinking can and will undermine the peace of God because fellowship is broken due to some underlying sin.

It is very possible that we have allowed the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life to get between the Shepherd of our souls and us. Our thinking, speaking, and doing have been negatively impacted by disobedience to His Word. We tend to forget that holiness is hardwired to happiness; this happiness is more than a feeling but a profound fact found in the Person of Jesus Christ alone. There is no doubt that genuine happiness is a choice (cf. Psa 1:1-3).

When we get away from the Word, the fruit of the Spirit is conspicuously absent in our lives (Gal 5:19-20) because we are no longer being controlled by the Holy Spirit via the Word (Eph 5:18; Gal 5:16). Our spiritual attitude takes a nose-dive. We are creatures most miserable (cf. Psa 32:4; 38:4). It seems everybody knows it but us!

The only fix is not to be found in chocolate, buying something, going somewhere exotic, but in Christ. In paraphrasing Chuck Swindoll, “There is this stupid tendency to substitute things for God.” We need Christ and His Word to fix what is broken, not the things of the world. His Word is His will; His will is the Word. The Father may very well be telling His son or daughter, “You need Christ to fix your attitude” (cf. 1 Jn 1:9). If we claim to be under the Word, why are we not in it? If we want to be with Jesus for an eternity, why do we ignore or avoid Him this side of heaven?

You know; we cannot obey what we are intentionally ignoring! This is nothing more than a love (agape) problem of the heart (Jn 14:15) and a violation of the prime directive of all of Scripture (Deut 6:5; Mk 12:30). When in disobedience to the LORD, have you ever noticed that trust is not an action word in our lives?

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him (Psa 34:8)!

If you feel the need to sweeten your life, taste and trust go together quite nicely in Christ. It is wiser to choose Christ over chocolate to fix our attitude in the short and long hauls of life. It has been said, “A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t go anywhere unless you change it.” Maybe, it’s time for a change from chocolate to Christ. <><