Deadly Sins New and OldSample

Gluttony My grandmother used to ask me with a grin, “Do you live to eat or eat to live?” I think that was her gentle way to encourage me not to become a glutton, though I didn’t know that word back then. Though the word sounds a little antique today, the sin is real: “A discerning son heeds instruction, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father” (Proverbs 28:7). Do you like to cook? Do you like to eat? Last Thanksgiving Day did your house look like ours, where for an hour after the meal nobody moved much, stunned into a food coma? How can you tell when enjoying God’s rich abundance and diversity of foods and treats becomes gluttony? When your diet is so full of rich and processed foods that you are headed for obesity... when your overeating is causing you major health problems... when God’s gift of wine and other alcoholic beverages become an addiction and you can’t stop... when your appetite for the high life is costing you way more money than you can afford and you’re shorting your family, your debt service payments, and your offerings to the Lord. Our appetites are always threatening to take over our lives, and satisfying them becomes our obsession. The Proverbs passage above provides a clue about how to gauge your gluttony index--listen to your family. A discerning son heeds instruction. Eat to live; don’t live to eat.