I read about “Marshmallow Test” study today done at Stanford University in 1960. The subjects were children of ages four to six year olds.

These little kids will be given one marshmallow (can be cookies or pretzel sticks). They are told that they would be rewarded with the second marshmallow if they wait for 15 minutes “without giving in to the temptation.”

Those kids who sat there and stared at the marshmallow lost the battle and ate one marshmallow and forfeited the reward and left the room, but few kids stayed for 15 minutes without eating that one, sweet and colorful marshmallow and they were rewarded with extra marshmallow in addition to the one that was sitting in front of them.

How did these kids do it? How did they wait for that extra painful 15 minutes?

The researchers were video recording them and they found out that these kids didn’t stare at the marshmallow. Instead they were singing, crawling under the table, picking up their chair and covering the marshmallow so they wouldn’t see it and some of them just created a game to play with other kids so that those 15 long and trying minutes would pass away.

This, my friend, is called “self-control techniques” as John MacArthur concluded in one of his messages where he used this study finding as an illustration.

When they followed these kids after many years, guess what they found out? Those children, “who were able to wait longer for the preferred rewards tended to have better life outcomes” and my response to that finding was “Duh!”

The Bible says, “Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32) The Bible also tells us that we have given the spirit of self-control in Christ (2 Timothy 1:7). All we have to do is to practice it, to bring it out.

Yeah, don’t put that colorful and sweet “marshmallow” in front of you and stare at it long. It is yours, but if the timing is wrong (if you are not married,) don’t even touch it. Save it for the next “15 minutes.” Your Rewarder is watching, “recording”, all the steps you take, all the self-control techniques you are implementing to focus on the goal and purpose, which is to keep your sexual integrity.

So, wait! ///