Not even a crumb. :]

So, as many of you know, I am allergic to wheat and usually bitter and mopey about it. :) However, as I was thinking about my allergy today, it taught me a moral lesson. I went to girls camp a week ago, and I did not think to plan ahead and bring my own food for when I couldn't eat what was being served. Because of this, I ended up having to eat wheat on quite a few occasions, and I dealt with some mega-awful stomach pain when I got home from camp. After three days of a wrenching stomach ache, I was pretty motivated NEVER to eat wheat again in my entire life. I am proud to say that I have not eaten any for 8 days now....yes, I know. It is a minuscule accomplishment, but it is an accomplishment for me. :) Now, to the moral of my story. It is SO hard to avoid eating wheat, unbelievably hard, especially when I know it is not going to end my life if I eat it. ;) When I do not prepare ahead of time and plan, I end up in trouble and with an awful stomach ache afterwards. When I just simply give in and eat something that I want to that I shouldn't, it doesn't always affect me so badly, but then I've tasted it, and I know what I'm missing out on. I think that this is true of any temptation set out for us by the devil. If we do not plan ahead and have our standards rock solid before the situation arises, we will not be prepared and will end up in pain and misery later. If we give in just the TEENSIEST bit to our temptation, it is just so easy to go back for a little more and a little more until we end up in trouble. Once you have tasted of the temptation, it is not as easy to avoid it because you have tried it before, you know what you are 'missing out on' in a sense. Also, you have then weakened your sense of will-power at that point because you gave in, and so the second time the temptation comes around, you are a little weaker and more easily persuaded to let your guard down. Satan is out to get us, and I know it more surely than anything else. He wants to make us feel like we are missing out on all of the fun that the world is having while we are at church and obeying our standards. However, he is a wicked ruler. Those who are under his jurisdiction are slaves, not free, happy redeemed people. We CAN win the battle against him and rise to resurrected, beautiful glory. We must be strong and not even taste a crumb. :)