And Watch What You Say
February 5, 2009 (Thursday)
I enjoy a soft drink now and then, and I have found one I truly love because it tastes great, has no caffeine, and, best of all, no calories at all. It won’t keep me awake and won’t make me fat.
A drink with no caffeine and no calories sounds too good to be true. It is. I looked at the label and, in very small amounts, there are other things in the drink: flavors, citric acid, potassium citrate, potassium benzoate, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium, and edta. Somewhere in there is phenylalanine, listed separately. It’s in a plastic bottle, which some folks think exposes the one who drinks it to carcinogens.
Some of the ingredients sound commonplace and others sound menacing. Most of them are useful in many ways, and some are helpful to the human body’s efforts to resist disease. Doubtless this listing would not be displayed on the bottle label if not mandated by some government office. People would just buy and enjoy, without investigating. Some folks, however, have severe, life-threatening allergies to some of these ingredients and others simply cannot tolerate one or more of these chemicals.
Jesus said, “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean’ (Matthew 15:11 NIV).” Jesus most certainly was not talking about soft drinks, but He was talking about being careful to please God with what comes out of your mouth. Think before you speak, and let your words be a blessing, not a curse. Your words reveal what’s in your heart.
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Comic illustration of truth in labeling: