I love chocolate! After living in Belgium for three years, I am a bit of a chocolate snob. With so many varieties of fine chocolates to choose from, I preferred the small, thin pieces of dark chocolate. In Brussels you could buy them in the grocery store for less than $5. That isn’t bad considering a cheaper box at a chocolatier started at $70.
With the known health benefits of chocolate, I try improving my health by adding chocolate wherever I can. It was a no-brainer to add a piece of dark chocolate to hot buttered bread, after I grilled it on my George Foreman (similar to a Panini) grill. It also works on a hot, buttered biscuit or Filipino pan de sol.
Recently I tried something different. I added chocolate to my grits! I have always added butter and sugar to my grits (don’t stone me), so chocolate wasn’t much of a leap. You might say they don’t go together, but I highly recommend that you try it first. I got the idea from the champorado my wife makes. I just use instant grits instead of rice. Now I can enjoy chocolaty goodness any time I want it and that is a lot. I do need to limit how much I have, because too much of a good thing is bad.
There is another ingredient I love and try to add whenever I can. Actually it is the main ingredient and gives me life. I love JESUS and the more of Him in my life, the better. Everything else actually takes away from who I long to be. We are told to “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:2 KJV). The more JESUS I get, the more I want. I don’t have to limit how much JESUS I get because He knows how to give “exceeding abundantly” and it is all good!
After I get JESUS for myself, I need to share Him with others. The world doesn’t need more religion. They need a personal relationship with the GOD who “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV). That is the kind of GOD I serve! He asks a lot from us, but gives us so much more. JESUS died on the cross so we can live forever; so why can’t we give some of that life back to Him? Maybe this doesn’t sound like the kind of GOD you know? I highly recommend that you should “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psa 34:8 KJV).
Wayne Lance (2018)