May 8, 2009

[Rev. Doc]

A Lesson From Marshmallows

"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward."
Hebrews 11:24-26

In the 1960s, Walter Mischel conducted an experiment at Stanford University called The Marshmallow Experiment. The experiment involved testing a group of four-year-olds. Each was offered a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one.

The children reacted differently. Some gobbled down the lone marshmallow immediately. Others kept looking at the marshmallow, smelling it, and even touching it, but refrained from eating it. Others sought to distract themselves by singing or walking around until the second marshmallow arrived.

Researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence and found that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable (as determined by surveys of parents and teachers). Those who waited also scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

On the other hand, the one-third that could not wait for the second marshmallow continued to demonstrate the lack of ability to control immediate impulses to achieve long-range goals. For example, Ronald Gross cites that when it was time for the big test, they would tend to get distracted into watching a favorite television program.*

The ability to wait in order to obtain a greater reward has been termed "delayed gratification." It requires one to exercise self-control to say “NOâ€

[Reon]

Thanks for the devotional - really appreciate it. (Gotta love when it relates to life on top of it being good =))

[ADXC]

These are really good devotionals! And that's how it is in life, we must please God and others before we can even think about pleaseing ourselves.