Do Christmas Temptations Really Count? (standard:humor, 904 words)
Author: Godspenman	Added: Dec 21 2014	Views/Reads: 2272/4	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Temptations never count unless for some reason I yield to the temptation.

All my life I have been careful about succumbing to the temptations of
life. I have not always been successful and have fallen into some. 
Oscar Wilde famously said, “I can resist anything except temptation.” 
We all know the end of his life. 

Temptation is the hardest thing in life to resist. I have watched myself
and in spite of watching myself, I have succumbed to temptation. Just 
when I think I have overcome everything and have stepped beyond 
temptation, I find myself tempted. 

It is not being tempted that is difficult, because everybody is tempted.
The hymn writer said, “Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin.” 
So the temptation is not sin, it is how I react to that temptation. 

I must say I have had some abundant help from the Gracious Mistress of
the Parsonage whose major role in life is to keep me from yielding. She 
has kept me from who knows how much yielding I will never know. I do 
know this, I do not want to yield to some temptation and then have to 
face her. Enough said. 

But this is the holiday season, celebrating Christmas and everything
that goes with it. One major activity that goes with this kind of 
holiday is eating. 

Now eating is something we do all the time; at least I do. It is not the
eating; it is what I am eating that poses some problems. The Christmas 
holiday offers so many cookies and cakes and pies that I cannot eat 
them all, but I try. Oh boy, do I try. 

“Don't you think you have had enough cake?” She always asked me in the
middle of eating a piece of cake. If my mouth was not full with cake, I 
would like to tell her, “No, I don't think I have had enough cake and 
when I do I'm certainly not going to tell you.” 

You all know where that will get me! 

What I want to know is simply this; how much cake or cookie or pie is
really too much? It is a simple question and I would like to have a 
simple answer. 

Where I get into trouble is when my wife and I go to some Christmas
party. I feel as a responsible partygoer I need to taste all of the 
cake and cookies that the gracious host has provided for us. That's 
just the way I think about it. I believe it would be insulting to go to 
a party and not eat all of the party vittles, at lease sample them. 

My wife, as you may guess, has an altogether different view of it. She
has this strange notion that when I go to a party, particularly when 
she is accompanying me, the less I eat the more I honor the hostess. 
According to her, I should leave a party hungry. 

My idea is simply that if it is a holiday party with Christmas cakes and
cookies the calories are on holiday and do not count. At least I am not 
counting them. I think at Christmas time bookkeeping should be put 
aside and the enjoyment of the season should be foremost. 

If the host comes to me in the middle of a party and asks me how I liked
her cake, I feel I have the responsibility to give a very educated 
critique of the cake. I owe it to her. After all, she took the time to 
bake it and I should take the time to eat it and enjoy it and critique 
it. Giving my honest opinion about the Christmas vittles is a very 
important part of who I am. 

It is after the party that I encounter the greatest difficulty. That is,
explaining to my wife why I ate so much cake and cookies and pie. 

She does not very much accept the, “I just do not want to be rude,”
explanation. 

This is one of the few places in life that we differ or I should say
that I stand up and differ. I know that while I am at the party 
indulging in the delicacies all I will get is a poke in the rib and one 
of her “looks.” I can handle that. After all, Christmas delicacies are 
worth it. 

It is when I get home that I have to deal with the Christmas temptations
I yielded to at the party. 

For several years and I plan to use it this year, I always respond by
saying, “I'm going to make a New Year's resolution not to eat cake 
anymore for the rest of the year.” 

How I get away with this New Year's resolution is that I make it two
days before the end of the year. And so, for the rest of the year, 
which includes two days, I will eat no cake or cookies or pie while the 
world stands. 

Temptation is not a serious thing unless backed into a corner and forced
to yield to that temptation. 

The Bible Says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be 
tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make 
a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). 


Temptations never count unless for some reason I yield to the
temptation. 


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