YUM. Baked goods are absolutely delicious. The rise in popularity of the website
pinterest.com and my own sweet tooth
has gotten me into baking. I love baking (and eating!) anything from brownies to cupcakes to just about everything else, especially
anything with chocolate. I bake the most during the holidays because the oven
warms the house on cold winter nights, and there are often festivities around
Christmas and New Years Eve that allow me to bake for mass amounts of people.
One of my
go-to baked goods is the classic chocolate chip cookie. It is a staple in the
baking world, and there is even pre-made, ready-to-bake cookie dough in the
frozen section of the grocery store. If ever there’s a time when I’m unsure of
what to bake, I turn to the chocolate chip cookie because it is generally
something people like. There are often times when I myself crave chocolate chip
cookies, in which I picture chocolate chip cookies to be like this:
Chocolate chip cookies look even better in commercials!
There’s not a doubt in my mind that
chocolate chip cookie commercials want to trigger craving. There’s just
something about the melty, fudgy goodness of the cookie that seems appealing,
even more so when it’s broken into two or when shown close up. The commercial
above even shows the breaking of the cookie not once or twice but three times! Cravings can even be
triggered not just by sight but also by smell or by association, like the smell
of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies or the happy trip to grandma’s when she
happened to bake cookies for her grandchildren. Also, the commercial is “punny”
in the way that it uses the term “break”. It tells the audience to “take a break”
with their Nestle Toll House Cookies, both showing that when we’re relaxing, we
should eat cookies. The chocolate chip cookie is being portrayed as a comfort
food; it relieves stress when eaten. How many times have you turned to sweet foods
when stressed?
It is a comfort food that provides
you, well, comfort, particularly because it has chocolate that tastes heavenly,
as the commercial claims. Chocolate is known to release certain
neurotransmitters like endorphins. Endorphins are neurotransmitters that
release stress. Not only does the look of chocolate chip cookies look
comforting and appealing, but it has a chemical reaction that affects your
physical body. We can easily cave when a craving hits us, and it’s sometimes
hard to control. Craving ultimately makes the body and mind weak and
susceptible to things like food – a weakness that is unique to our species and
that proves our human-ness.
Craving is only one example in the
many, examples on the limitations of humans. We are vulnerable and easily fall
into temptation. “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by
his own lust” (James 1:14 ). In the
verse before it, however, it says that “God cannot be tempted by evil” (James 1:13 ). Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 1:25 , it says “the foolishness of God is wiser
than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” In
our weakness, we should be reminded of God’s ultimate strength and rely on Him
during tough times when we feel vulnerable. We live in a world that can easily
be discouraging and weakening, and we may feel empty in which we can choose to
fill up that emptiness with what we crave – whether it be food or money or
success. These worldly things can seem so desirable, but as Christians in our
world and especially our culture, we must learn to crave God. Colossians 3:2
says, “Set your mind on the things above, not the things that are on earth.”
Satisfying cravings may provide instant gratification – something we value in
our society today – for now, but it does not compare to the satisfaction we are
to receive in living a life filled with Christ and the eternity we live in with
Him.
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