Oooooof!

I got a kick in the stomach through a gumball on Christmas Day.  Or maybe a punch in the arm?  Either way, another lesson learned.  :-)

We don't chew gum here at our house.  Sounds silly to most, I know, but there are a few reasons why I would prefer my kids not to chew it:

1) sugar.  I know, I know.  We can't totally avoid sugar, and we don't go out of our way to do so, but it's easy to avoid sugar in something like gum - a nonessential.

2) aspartame.  The fake sweetener is just as obnoxious as the real sweetener.

3) food coloring.  I hate food coloring.  It is SO unnecessary!  Take egg nog for instance.  I looked at the list of ingredients on egg nog at the grocery store this month, and it has Yellow #5 in it.  WHY????  For what purpose????  I ended up making our own egg nog here at home, and it was also yellow because of the egg yolks.  So why do the makers and sellers of egg nog feel the need to add yellow?  The Feingold folks can give anyone a good education about food coloring. 

4) I read a short blurb about gum chewing that explained that when we chew, our brains receive the signal to tell our bodies to start producing the acid needed for digestion which can wreak havoc with our tummies.  My husband struggles with GERD already.  I see no need to add to his troubles with this, or expose our kids who might have the same weakness, to possible trouble for a stick of gum.

So that's my reasoning over gum.  What a scrooge!  It's a piece of gum, right??????  Oh, well.

So the big lesson learned..........I've told the kids that gum is not all it's cracked up to be and that their Dad and I have decided to opt-out where it is concerned.  The problem is that we would only discuss it in the checkout line at Target when the kids see the gum and ask if they can have some.  So I spent all of two seconds telling them no, that it's bad, bad, bad for them. 

Well, my daughter bought a big thing of gumballs for her brother for Christmas with her AWANA bucks at the AWANA store.  My husband or I were not there with her while she was doing her shopping, and she wrapped all her gifts on her own.  I didn't say anything when my son opened her gift.  I mean, come on, I'm not going to ruin a good gift-opening moment like that!  But as I thought about it throughout the day, I realized that the reason that my daughter gave those gumballs to my son was because even though my husband and I prefer that the kids not chew gum, we had never really explained why we thought it was not the best choice to our kids. Communication was lacking, which led to a lack of conviction on my daughter's part.

This made me think back through my life as a Christian gal.  I went through a loooooong period of lukewarm Christianity because, quite honestly, a lack of communication on the who, what, where, when's and why's of what Christianity is all about.  I was just told what sort of Christian I needed to be, which was great, but without a roadmap to get me there, I was floundering all over the place.  I had no conviction, which led to many bad decisions that make me cringe to this day.  If only........!

So those goofy gumballs have given me a fresh reminder that I need to be communicating with my kids about all this stuff rather than just telling them to "do this" and "do that" because it's best for them.  Works as long as they stay two years old their whole lives!  But they are getting older, and are going to need SOMETHING to base their decisions to follow God or reject God when they leave our home, and I had better be about the business of supplying them with that something!  After all, I am one who must give an account of my work.