When the Adulteress is Food...

I asked a friend to read my blog earlier this week. She has owned a bookstore for many years, and knows quite a lot about the publishing business. When I asked for her feedback, it was not with a particular idea or agenda in mind, but simply because I thought her experience might allow her to help me with the process of refining my writing skills...my hunch was correct, and her feedback was extremely helpful!

She suggested that perhaps I could be more vulnerable in sharing my own experiences and struggles...terrific idea, don't you think? (insert a wry smile here...)

In all seriousness, I think it is important to be vulnerable, because it's the vulnerability that allows other people to relate to what I'm sharing, and to be touched by the deeper emotional import of the material. I wrote earlier in the week about the Proverbs treatment of adultery and the adulteress, and to my dismay, Proverbs 7 returns to the subject...

In the interim days, another friend shared her own insights about the topic of the adulteress, and observed that for we two ladies, the adulteress is most often food...and indeed, she is correct. I have wrestled my entire life long with the wily adulteress...cloaked in chocolate and her many cousins...last night, I waged war with a box of L'Eggo waffles in my freezer...and lost. I said to another friend this morning, "At least they were whole wheat waffles, and I used Country Crock instead of butter..." Such is the rationalization of the addictive personality.

The temptation to abuse food will likely always be with me...and so I must start fresh every single day with a decision to choose the right thing, the healthy thing. It is the absolute D-A-I-L-I-N-E-S-S of the process that wears me out!

In verse 27, the writer of the Proverb says this:

"Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death."

Strong medicine, that.

Maybe your adulteress is a woman, or a man...or maybe it's a substance, like food or alcohol. It could be anything...I have to constantly guard my heart, my mind and my behavior against the temptation to addiction...for me, the addiction to food.

The Proverb also reminds us that wisdom and understanding can keep us safe from the path to destruction...from the seductive words of the adulteress...so whatever you do today, keep in mind the value of wisdom, the importance of understanding...face the day with both of them...one of each side...and always remember: Choose life.