In
view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement
your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence
with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient
endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly
affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 2 Peter 1:5-7
Self-control is such an important element
of our personality—of our very soul. I grew up learning to have and nurturing a
bad temper. I always blamed it on my Irish heritage. It has only been through
the Lord that I have gained some control over my temper and my tongue.
Knowledge of the Lord—and submitting to Him has allowed control of my tongue
which I’ve discovered is an integral part of self-control.
So also the tongue is a small part of the
body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold how great a forest is set
aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of
iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire
body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For
every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is
tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it
is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and
Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;
from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things
ought not to be this way. James 3:5-10 NASB.
What is inside of a person is what flows
out of them. What is inside of you? Love, joy, peace patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control? Or is it hatred,
bitterness, envy, idolatry, or just self-centeredness? When you are bumped,
upset or inconvenienced, whatever is inside of you will come out. If your life
is has the moral excellence that Peter wrote about in our scripture today if
and you have self-control that is gifted to you by God, then you’ll be able to
react in a way that is pleasing to Him. What a blessing self-control is! It
boosts your self-esteem and helps you to be a better witness for God. Trust the
Lord to give you self-control—over your thoughts, words and actions. I know He
can help you…He helped me.
Prayer
~ Lord, give us this day our bread. Guard our tongues that we wouldn’t have to
eat our words—but that those words would be pleasing to You and encouraging to
those around us.
Daily
Bible Reading: Psalms 65-67, 69-70.
Friday’s
Feast at the King’s Table
Watch what
foods you put into your mouth…across that tongue that can say bitter or sweet
things. Studies have shown that the tongue has about a three week memory, so if
can eliminate a particular food from your diet for three week, you can break
the habit. Can you imagine no sugar for three weeks? I’ve found that sugar is
just a poison to my body—but it is also very hard to give it up. Would that
mean giving up chocolate? Chocolate without sugar just isn’t tasty—or is it?
Even the very best cacao needs some sweetness to balance the bitterness of the
cacao. Cacao and thus chocolate are heart healthy and have important
antioxidants for cancer prevention. Here’s a recipe for Chocolate Mousse I’ve
modified from The Cancer Survivor’s Guide.
Chocolate Mousse
1 cup
semisweet chocolate chips or 8 ounces of 70-80% cacao chocolate bar, broken up
1 cup
nondairy milk
24 ounces of
silken tofu
1 tsp pure vanilla
extract
1 banana,
chopped, optional
Strawberries,
blueberries or raspberries and mint leaves to garnish
In a
microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate in the milk for about 1 minute. Stir
and let sit for an additional two minutes. Pour into a food processor or
blender. Add the tofu, vanilla extract, and banana, if desired. Blend until
smooth. Pour into dessert goblets or bowls. Chill for a couple of hours. Serve
with sliced fruit and mint leaves as desired. This will make up to 10 servings—depending
on your self-control over the portion sizes. Refrigerate leftovers.
©
2017 Text and photo by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.
All
scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.
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