Sound self-control

Here is an incident before a plate of toffee bars I determined I would not eat, left over from the batch I made for John when he came to fix my printer. I had decided the matter last night, in a moment of self-control and with soundness of mind, before God. There is nothing wrong in general with eating toffee bars. But we do not live in general. Each of us lives unto God, and in my case, surfeit of even five pounds "hinders" (Hebrews 12:1).

The forms of temptation:

Frenzied, half-awake gorging right out of bed, followed by "Oops."

"What harm can one more do?"

"It won't make any difference."

"They have oats and walnuts in them."

"This voice in my head is not the Holy Spirit."

"This is just my own silly rule, not God's; I made it, I can break it."

"Legalism."

"As long as I've gone this far…."

"Who cares."

"What in the world is real?"

The reader will observe that some of the above claims are mutually contradictory. As an aside I would like to add that concerted attention was required to even "hear" the temptations and record them for you because one of the hallmarks of the voices of temptation is their muffled, garbled, indistinct quality. Truth is lucid and logical; lies, not so. As Screwtape said, "It is funny how mortals always picture us putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out."

And I wonder how what just happened to me before a plate of toffee bars happens in other areas of my life.