December 16: chocolate

Kind words are like honey—

    sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.*

Dark Chocolate is my favourite kind, because it's so rich I can't eat it in large quantities. It's sweet but also slightly bitter, which I like. Too much chocolate isn't good, and I understand that each of us will have a different understanding of what that looks like. For me, chocolate can be around for months without being considered and then in a week I'll have 2 whole bars! :o
It is a nice luxury, sweet like honey? But not that amazing (debatable I guess) as to how healthy it is for the body and sweet to the soul. Christmas (and Easter) I find there is a LOT of chocolate around. It kinds of distracts from the true sweetness of the words which are the foundation of the celebrations. The sweet kind words of God's love. 

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,    make straight paths for him.’”

John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”**

*Proverbs 16:24
**Matthew 3:1-12