From the Desk of Keith Hafner

Don’t Poke the Marshmallow!

Pastor Bill’s son-in-law is a pastor, too.  He visited and spoke at our church Sunday.  He had an interesting lesson about delayed gratification.  It’s a subject near and dear to my heart.  That’s one of the first things we work on with students of all ages.

So, anyway, he showed a video of an experiment that had been made a few months earlier.  They rounded up a bunch of kids who were all approximately four years old.

They took the kids, one at a time, and sat them at a table. Alone in the room. Then, they put one marshmallow, on a plate, in front of them.

Then, the instructions from the person conducting the experiment:  ‘This marshmallow is yours.  You can eat it right away if you want.  But I’m going to leave the room for just a few seconds.  If you don’t eat the marshmallow until I get back, I’ll give you a second marshmallow.’

The person then left the room for maybe 30 or 45 seconds.  What do you think happened?

I KNEW what would happen.  After all, I’ve worked closely with kids in this age group for nearly 50 years.

Every single kid ate the marshmallow.

A few gobbled it up right away. Most, though, tried to wait it out. But here’s where they caved:  They POKED the marshmallow.  Squeezed it. Sniffed it.  One boy picked his up, licked it, and put it back on the plate. Quickly, then, each one ate the marshmallow.

This is normal behavior for kids in this age group.  Most kids don’t begin to get the idea of delayed gratification until they are about seven years old.

For many of us, though, this becomes a lifelong battle.  A battle that many adults ultimately lose.

Anyway, here’s my question to you:

In the areas of your life that are important to you;  where you are fighting the temptations that can potentially pull you off track…

‘Are YOU poking the marshmallow?’

I think most of the kids in the video would have been okay had they not ‘poked the marshmallow.’

But — the sensory experience, the touch, the smell, the taste…was very powerful.  Often, more powerful than resolution…certainly more powerful than good intentions.

When you allow your SENSES to be exposed to the things that pull you off track — you make it very difficult for your will power to do what it’s supposed to do.