Vegetables and sweets

 I get a box of vegetables every week and on occasion, I will come back from shopping with a chocolate selection pack.

Now if I were to offer you the chance of taking something from either what would you pick?
Before you answer, let me tell you a story about a boy named Daniel.
Daniel was an Israelite. He was still just a boy when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered the Israelites. After conquering Israel, Nebuchadnezzar took hundreds of young boys like Daniel captive, bringing them into his palace. They were not prisoners, however.
These boys were enrolled in a special school, where they learned the law of Babylon. If they did well, they would have a chance to serve the king in his palace.
Living in the palace meant the boys in this program got to eat like royalty. They were brought the best-tasting, fattiest, sweetest, tastiest food imaginable. Most of the boys ate it up, but one day, the king’s servants received a request from Daniel and his friends to eat vegetables
and drink water.
The king’s servants were upset by this. They were responsible for keeping the boys well-fed, and if they didn’t eat, they were failing in their duties. They and the king were surprised by the request for healthy food. Not only was it bold to challenge the king’s rules, but also they
were asking for plain old water and vegetables. It didn’t make any sense!
Daniel convinced the servants to test them on the veggie diet. If they weren’t as healthy as the other students in a few weeks, they would give up the veggies and eat the king’s food.

Can you guess what happened? Daniel and his friends were healthier than the other boys.
They were so healthy, the king ordered that all the students be put on the same veggie diet!
What can we learn from Daniel and his friends? One obvious lesson is to eat your veggies.
But there’s a bigger lesson to be learned here: self-discipline. The boys could have given in and gone along with the crowd, but they wanted to stick with the healthy diet they had always eaten. They refused to give in to peer pressure, they took the hard road, and they were rewarded. All four of them eventually became officials in the government.
Self-discipline isn’t easy, but when it comes to choosing God’s way or the world’s way, it’s the only way to go. It will keep you healthy, wise, strong, and better able to be used by the Lord.