Thank you, God, for chocolate!

Well, I’ve been humbled after all my going on about how hard I find it to praise God for things. My thinking has been that when I’m listing all the good stuff I like that God has done for me, it’s like I’m not only turning Him into a big genie, but it feels manipulative, like if I tell Him He’s so great for all that He does for me, I’ll keep Him happy and maybe He’ll keep blessing me.  

But recently I found myself feeling, thinking AND even putting into words a very shallow, ”THANK YOU, GOD, FOR CHOCOLATE”! And then, to be even more shallow about it all, I had the thought, “Well, there’s one more good reason to invest in those Dove dark chocolate bars crying out to me from the Walmart checkout line.”

Here’s the article that got me praising God for chocolate: “A ‘Kiss’ a Day Lowers Blood Pressure.”

I was sure God was really saying something to me on this topic, because just last week I had stumbled upon an article from Lingamish titled, “There’s No Chocolate in Heaven”, reporting on a British study that found chocolate to have a longer lasting buzz than kissing. Lingamish draws some rather interesting conclusions about the study, and there are some pointed responses in the comment section.  There is even a quote from C.S. Lewis to get you thinking about the topic from a different angle.

I already take M&Ms as vitamins and Reese’s peanut butter cups in place of Zoloft. Now I’m going to start taking Hershey’s dark chocolate kisses prophylactically for blood pressure health and also whenever I need a longlasting buzz…..

Slightly more seriously, some time ago I came up with the perfect serotonin-boosting, stress busting, make-me-feel-better-when-I’m-down-and-don’t-feel-like-eating food: a banana covered in peanut butter with dark chocolate chips sprinkled heavily on top. It gives me calories, potassium, protein and a whole host of dark chocolate benefits including serotonin. Plus, it is not all that high in sugar, so it doesn’t just give a quick rush and good feeling followed by a crash.

So, yes, even though it feels shallow, today I’m thanking God for chocolate.