Most of those who read this blog will remember my hospital trip last year. Due to the shameful amount of soda I was drinking daily, I had several kidney stones that were making their painful exit from my body.
After the experience, I vowed to drink more water. Finally, to judge my progress, I printed up a sheet with twenty-five glasses of water marked on it. 5 glasses a day, 5 days a week (I don't keep track when I'm at home, but I try to drink a few glasses there, too) When I drink a glass, I color in the glass on my sheet. Right now I've completely filled three sheets, and am on the last row of the current one, meaning that if I drink all my water today, I will have fulfilled my goal all month long, a first!
I have realized that I am losing my taste for soda, at least for the dark syrupy kind. I still like Mountain Dew, Sprite, and ginger ale, but they no longer quench my thirst. I drink them for fun, not for nourishment. I have also discovered that if I do make myself drink a whole dark soda, I will start craving them again, and have a harder time drinking water.
I think virute and sin work this way. You start acting virtuously because you know you need to, even though you don't want to. After a while, you begin to want virtue. But I at least end up thinking "Well, I'm doing ok, this one little indulgence won't hurt." What I forget is that that one little slip will reawaken that thirst for evil, that desire for sin. If I don't keep drinking the water and refusing the soda, I will end up with another kidney stone, or worse.
So, am I equating sin with Coke?
No, sin is obviously Dr. Pepper. :)
2 comments:
This is SOOOO true. Recently I've been getting quite frustrated (to put it mildly) by the way I swing back and forth between discipline and rebellious abandon. Maybe a little bit of it is that I need to allow myself room within my good habits for free time doing things I enjoy, but I think you're probably right, and it's more that it's so easy to go back to craving what makes you sick after tasting it for a little while. That's still frustrating, because it implies a battle I'll never win (but then... duh.), but encouraging, because I can always make the right choice now, and though it may be hard, it will get easier if I continue in it.
So, thanks for this post!
I'm in the process of switching my soda habits to Sprite Zero - no caffeine, no artificial colors, no sugar... (no good. Ha, just kidding, it's not bad).
And sin is NOT Dr. Pepper! God drinks Dr. Pepper from time to time ;-)
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