The Long Waits

Delayed gratification is something that I’ve had a love-hate relationship with almost my entire life. Sometimes, I was so terrible looking to the future instead of the here and now, that I wouldn’t put any stock at all into the “delayed gratification.” I wanted to do the thing now, so I was going to do it.

Other times, it was the silliest of things, which didn’t need an incentive anyway, yet I would delay the partaking in it just for it to feel a little sweeter.

When you eat food, do you eat the best food first so that you eat your favorite while you’re still super hungry? Or do you eat least favorite to favorite so that the best thing, the thing you like most, you reward yourself with at the end? If you eat part of everything as you go, you’re a psychopath.

The question really has to be asked before you’re in the situation of delaying yourself that gratification. You have to ask, is it worth it? Is it worth it to wait? Is it worth it to give up on waiting?

If you haven’t already decided that before you get into the situation, you will almost always lean toward the “it’s worth it right now, not waiting” route.

If you say you’re not going to eat any sugar, and you go to a restaurant the next day with your favorite dessert, if you haven’t decided before you go to that restaurant that you’re not going to get the dessert, you’re going to come out of that fine establishment with a dessert.

It’s not to say that if you tell yourself beforehand you’re not going to do it, you won’t. But I tell you this, if you don’t, there’s no way your flesh is going to be able to say no in the moment. We are weak and have no ability in ourselves to overcome those urges.

You have to have a higher purpose or reason before you do something. The Lord is on your side. If it’s a good thing, He will help you.