{"id":319,"date":"2015-10-14T14:40:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T14:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=319"},"modified":"2015-10-14T14:40:12","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T14:40:12","slug":"sweet-indulgences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=319","title":{"rendered":"Sweet Indulgences"},"content":{"rendered":"

My kids like to watch “Once Upon a Time”.\u00a0 It’s a show that combines modern times with fairy tales and other magical stories.\u00a0 There are plenty of good characters and villains to keep things interesting.\u00a0 And there is a lot of magic.<\/p>\n

Generally what happens is someone gets into trouble and a loved one seeks out a magical solution, which usually entails going to a villain.\u00a0 The phrase that is repeated over and over is, ‘there is a price for using magic’.\u00a0 Sometimes the price is known up front; you must obtain a certain object or person as payment.\u00a0 More often, the price is owing a favor to be determined and collected at a later date.\u00a0 As I watch, I’m amazed at how quickly the characters agree to become indebted to the evil villain.<\/p>\n

I know, I know, it’s just a show.<\/p>\n

But it reminds me of how quickly I can jump at the chance to do the easy, or selfish, or sinful\u00a0thing even though I know there will be a price.\u00a0 And usually, the price is higher than I thought or want\u00a0it to be, and it always comes due at the most inopportune times.<\/p>\n

\"thCA1B9J41\"<\/a>Take my\u00a0fondness of sweets for instance. \u00a0I like sweets.\u00a0 I always have.\u00a0 As\u00a0a kid, I loved to bake.\u00a0 My treats would garner high praise from those around me and would offer that great sugar rush when consumed.\u00a0 Throughout my adult life, I have continued to enjoy sweets.\u00a0 Unfortunately, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that there is a price to be paid when I have sweets too many days in a row.\u00a0 Knowing that I may become irritable and not feel well, does not stop me from overindulging in those delectable treats.\u00a0 I see them.\u00a0 They look good.\u00a0 I know they taste good.\u00a0 I know that I will have that glorious little rush.\u00a0 So I do the easy thing…I eat.<\/p>\n

I’m\u00a0just\u00a0like those characters.\u00a0 And like those characters, I have to pay the price.\u00a0 (Unfortunately, so do those around me when I get irritable.\u00a0 Sorry.)\u00a0 The crazy thing is that it’s happened more than once or twice or ten or one hundred times.\u00a0 You’d think I’d learn.\u00a0 But like the characters on the show, I keep going back, thinking it may be different this time.\u00a0 How insane!<\/p>\n

My hope is that one day sweets won’t have that pull on me, but I’m not sure that will happen.\u00a0 Rather, I think it’s time to choose to do the hard thing and say no.\u00a0 I know; that’s no fun at all!<\/p>\n

But here I go.\u00a0 I’ll let you know how it goes…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My kids like to watch “Once Upon a Time”.\u00a0 It’s a show that combines modern times with fairy tales and other magical stories.\u00a0 There are plenty of good characters and villains to keep things interesting.\u00a0 And there is a lot … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/thCA1B9J41.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}