Consequences

I frequently use the familiar ‘like a kid in a candy store’ phrase when describing a pleasurable experience.

Most baby boomers have seen the classic rerun of Lucy & Ethel stuffing their mouths with candy. The scene didn’t take place in a candy store; instead, it was a company that made and boxed chocolate candy. Lucy & Ethel had been hired to work on the assembly line conveyor belt and couldn’t keep up the pace. The hilarious pair ended up with candy crammed in their mouths and into uniform pockets.

Did the friends lose their taste for candy?

I segue from Lucy & Ethel to Carol & Pam. They had too much candy; we had too many plums! We yielded to childhood temptation. The plum tree was in the backyard of my best girlfriend Carol. The tantalizing fruit beckoned and we ate our fill. More, more, more…

To this day, (seven decades later) I can’t see a plum without thinking of that escapade and the bellyaches that followed. We ate as much as we wanted; consequences followed.

“Then our ancestors believed what he had said.
They sang praises to him.
But they quickly forgot about what he did.
They did not listen to his advice.
They became hungry in the desert,
and they tested him in the wilderness.
He gave them what they asked for,
but he also gave them a terrible disease (Psalms 106:12-15 ERV).”

I need to be more careful. God might give me what I ask for but I know He has promised to give me what I need.