Addictions...

Not that long ago McDonalds ran a customer drive through promotion entitled "you know you want it!". The idea was that you stuck a sticker on your windscreen and got a free whatever with every whatever purchased.... I was annoyed when I first read it, and decided to ponder this annoyance over a cheeseburger and *free* Medium coke... numerous times. I've learnt that food is addictive (more from experience than education) and that advertising can work effectively, especially on addicts. TV has taught me (if nothing else), that TV is addictive... so we go to some lengths to restrict our time in front of it. Sport, exercise, health monitoring - probably good addictions. Smoking, drugs, porn - destructive addictions. Then there are behavioral addictions - bad behaviour, being rude, falseness, lying... they are some bad ones obviously. I think they are addictions - for the same observations can be seen in an individual over and over...

Of course there are remedies for most addictions: diets, programmes, smashing the TV with a brick.... but who deals with the behavioral stuff, and who decides what is right and wrong anyway? Do genetics play a part? I know that parenting has an input, as would the company you keep, as would life experience... Some of our waiting room magazines have suggestions for how to deal with "that" type of person/issue, but most advice there seems a little shallow (or just plain wrong!) Extreme cases would be seeing a counsellor or someone professional for help - but what about everyone else...

Why am I bothering to write this? I got to thinking after I manipulated a situation to my favour the other day and realised that I know I have the power to do that with some people. It wasn't a big thing, but it didn't have to be - I know it was wrong and I think most people would agree. No one was around to monitor this behavior, so I got away with it. Good for me? Don't think so. Probably the people who know you best, the people you are closest to, are the ones to keep you accountable - but they can't see everything... what if they are the recipients of your addiction?
So do I let it go? No.... I am a Christian, a follower of Christ, and the word of God as written in the Bible cannot be ignored by me... that would be ridiculous. If God is omniscient, he doesn't miss my behavioral addictions... 2 Timothy 2 gives me the reason to pursue godly morality and tells me what to do. Is this restricting me in life? Not in my books - it gives me freedom! I don't have to base my morals on ever changing society values, but the unchanging word of God.