Marshmallow Test

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

It was called the Marshmallow Test. Researchers at Stanford University ran a test in the 1960s.  A researcher would say to four-year-olds: “I am leaving for a few minutes to run an errand, and you can have this marshmallow while I am gone, but if you wait until I return, you can have two marshmallows.”

Over a dozen years later, researchers studied the same children and the results were very interesting. The children who couldn’t wait, who snatched up the single marshmallow, tended to be more troubled as adolescents. Not only that, but they also scored lower on SAT tests. 

Christ followers teach their children many things: how to recite the ABCs, to say please and thank you, to tie their shoes, Bible verses, Christian songs, and more. Let me add two more strategic things: self-control and delayed gratification.

These two things are often missed in child rearing. I also want you to remember that you don’t have to go at it alone. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. As you operate in the power of the Holy Spirit, self-control will be evident in your life, exampling for them the joy and rewards of this much needed fruit. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5.22-23