Guilty Pleasure – Who Says?

• I do not feel guilty about the huge stash of chocolate under my desk.
• I do not feel guilty for getting a massage once a week.
• I do not feel guilty for eating the last piece of pie, brownie, etc.
• I do not feel guilty for sleeping in late…every day of the week.
• I do not feel guilty for buying more books than I can possibly read in five years.

No one is hurt by these things. Not even me. Why then feel guilty? To be good, upright, moral people must we never indulge ourselves? I don’t think so. Did not God lead his chosen people into a land flowing with milk and honey, a land flowing with good things? So even God expects us to enjoy the good things in life. (There are caveats of course. Moderation for example. Nothing is ever simple.)

I save my guilt for things that are truly wrong and where any pleasure in such acts is wrong. Hurting another person. Taking something that doesn’t belong to me. Lying by commission or omission. Ignoring your responsibilities to the harm of yourself or others.

• I do feel guilty when I don’t brush my teeth.
• I do feel guilty when I forget a commitment that someone else was relying on me to keep.
• I feel guilty about many things, enough things that I don’t need to add guilty pleasures.

This has been a pretty sober post. Sometimes that’s where my mind leads.

And I don’t feel guilty about that either. 😉