What makes you grumpy? I have been grumpy most of the day. I haven’t been around many people for very long so I don’t think I have acted grumpy, I just have felt grumpy, not happy, not much joy, sorta like when you are sick, you know, you don’t care about anything, you don’t much want to do anything either. I am not sick and nothing bad has happened so why am I feeling this way? I know what it is; it is this stupid diet that I am on; this would make anybody grumpy. It is amazing how food makes me feel so good, not just any food, but food that has a lot of calories in it. Not much feels as good as a really big bowl of ice cream with lots of chocolate sauce, whipping cream, nuts sprinkled all over the top and a dozen maraschino cherries to top it off. Wow, I am feeling better just thinking about it.

There is a short phrase in the Bible that is stated half a dozen times,“ the pleasures of sin.” And in 2 Timothy 3:4 it says, “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,” that verse makes this struggle to be free from the addiction to pleasure very important in my walk with God.

So I am thinking that this stupid diet is not only to help me lose some ugly fat, but it is also helping me to be less addicted to pleasure. Proverbs says that a man who is a lover of pleasure will come to ruin! Yikes, I certainly don’t want to come to ruin.

Which brings me to the second point of this blog, one which you have heard from me one million times, but it is always worth repeating, “I don’t have to act the way I feel!” I am feeling grumpy because I am not feeding my pleasures, but I can still act happy, I can still take my thoughts captive and think happy, and I can still treat people happy. You know what? When I act happy despite feeling grumpy when I choose to think happy, and when I work at building up the people around me to make them feel happy, pretty soon grumpy is gone, and happy is here; that is better than a bowl of ice cream.