IF YOU EAT TOOTSIE ROLLS FOR BREAKFAST, YOU HAVE TO EAT BROCCOLI FOR DINNER

BY STEVE DUNN

"If you eat tootsie rolls for breakfast, you'll have to eat broccoli for dinner." 

- Becky Jarrett on Facebook

Becky Jarrett, philosopher and mother

I think it had something to do with the Halloween Aftermath.  You know, that period of a few days when kids have enough candy to set a whole city block on a sugar high and the desire of their heart is to eat everything before Mom and Dad sneak in and eat the Snickers.

Before you think this is one more blog on wise eating, grab a handful of Tootsie Rolls and reflect with me on one of life's important truths.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ..." - Ecclesiastes 3.1-8, ESV

Most of us live in the moment. That moment's desires and joys or its problems and demands tend to capture our minds and dominate our attitudes.  There is a natural tendency in most humans to binge on the happy stuff and run as quickly as we can from the bad things.  For kids, the seasons to be embraced are the Tootsie Roll ones and the one to skip has broccoli in it.

Yet it is the diversity of these seasons that shape us.  They deepen our self-understanding and grow our character.  Any athlete knows that you learn something from both winning and losing.  You may only want to celebrate the former but the latter is often the greatest test of your resiliency.  Times of preparation are as important as times of celebration.

The seasons of life fill us with a rich diversity of experience.  They give us a time of testing, but also a time of resting.  They remind us that God is a God of New Beginnings.  They remind us that God's presence is so rich that it is with us in green pastures and valleys of the shadow.

I am glad that God gives me seasons for Tootsie rolls; but I am also grateful for the broccoli.

(C) 2013 by Stephen L Dunn

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