A few years ago I tried an experiment with a group of 10-year-olds I was
teaching.
“You have a choice,” I announced as I held up a bowl of M&M’s. “You can either
have a handful of M&M’s right now, or you can each have an entire bag of M&M’s
tomorrow.”
“Why don’t we try it the other way around?” Brady suggested. “Give us a bag of
M&M’s now, or a handful tomorrow!”
The rest of the class loved Brady’s idea. But I didn’t.
“Nope,” I said. “A handful now or the bag tomorrow. That’s the way it’s going to
be.”
“How about just a few now AND the rest later?” Megan asked.
“Sorry,” I said. “No compromise. You have to make a choice.”
“What if some of us want our M&M’s now, and some of us want to wait?” Adam
asked.
“Good idea,” I said. “But no. Whatever you’re going to do, you’re going to do it
as a group. You guys figure it out. I’m going to get a drink.”
With that I stepped into the hall and wandered down to the drinking fountain,
making sure to pause and stretch and meander. I wanted to give them plenty of
time to hash this out. We were, after all, talking about chocolate here. If
there’s one thing 26 years of marriage has taught me it’s that you have to be
very careful about decisions that involve chocolate – even if it’s the kind that
melts in your mouth, not in your hands.
When I finally poked my head back into the room, the decision had been made: the
bowl of M&M’s was empty, and there were chocolate-induced smiles all around.
“Actually, it was pretty much a no-brainer,” Nancy said of the decision. “The
hardest part was figuring out how to divide them up. The boys wanted to go
first, but we didn’t want to take a chance on the boys actually touching the
M&M’s before we got them. You never know where boys’ hands have been – you
know?”
Nancy, I should mention, has brothers.
So one of the boys – out of respect for delicate feelings I won’t say who –
arm-wrestled Nancy for the right to go first. I didn’t see the actual event, but
I’m confident the end came surely and swiftly. Think “Harry Potter Meets Xena,
Warrior Princess.” A battle of wits would have been competitive, but this wasn’t
about brain power. This was about brute strength.
Advantage Nancy.
The next day when I came home from work several of the kids from my class were
hanging out around my front lawn.
“We were just sort of thinking that . . . You know . . . Maybe we should have
waited to get a whole bag of M&M’s today,” Brady said. “And we were sort of
wondering . . . You know . . . If it is, like, too late to change our minds?”
I smiled. “Yeah, it is,” I said. “Sorry!”
“But the girls ate most of the M&M’s in the bowl,” Colton said. “We hardly got
any.”
“That’s too bad,” I said. “If you had waited not only would you have received
more M&M’s today than you got yesterday, but you would have received your own
bag and you wouldn’t have had to worry about how to divide them. But you decided
not to wait, so you’re pretty much stuck with what you got.”
They didn’t like that answer, but brought new insight to our Bible class the
next Sunday when we talked about how important it is to always stay focused on
our ultimate, long-term goals and priorities no matter how alluring and
intoxicating the diversions Right Now may be.
You know, the story of Jacob, Laban, Leah, Rachel – and the M&M’s.
Joseph J. Mazzella valuespeak@msn.com
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