I REALLY like chocolate. I like it in any form; cake, pie, brownies, cookies, candy bar, and occasionally straight from the chocolate syrup bottle. I remember when my parents made us homemade chocolate candy. They melted the chocolate and poured it into different molds. The chocolate would then take the shape of whatever it was poured into after it had cooled.

Imagine for a moment that you are a piece of chocolate, but you can’t stay just a piece of chocolate. You have gotten older and need to make a choice. You have two options; be poured into a mold or become a cake. Both involve you being melted, but one is easier. If you choose being molded, you will take on the shape and likeness of what you are being poured into. If you choose changing into a chocolate cake it requires more effort, more ingredients, more time, and more heat. What will you choose, mold or cake?

What if I told you the mold was in the shape of the world? After you allowed yourself to be poured into this mold you would look just like the world. Your outward shape has changed, but you still have the same texture as chocolate and you can easily be melted and poured into another mold.  Did you really change or have you just allowed yourself to be molded? What if you choose to become chocolate cake? You are mixed well with many other good ingredients, baked until just right, cooled and then frosted with even more chocolate. You are still chocolate, but you don’t look like yourself anymore. Your texture has changed. You are now moist, rich, and delicious. What will you choose, mold or cake?

Paul, through inspiration, commanded us in Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Don’t be conformed; don’t be molded by the world. Don’t try to fit in this mold because it is temporary. You can’t just change your outward appearance without changing your heart; you will still be just a piece of chocolate.

Be transformed; take who you are and add all of those wonderful ingredients God wants you to have in your life. Once you have them all combined, it becomes part of you. You can’t take the chocolate out once it has been mixed in. Once God become your focus, your all, your hope, your love, your first; you and He can’t be separated, you truly become one. What will you choose, mold or cake? What will you choose, world or God?

 

By Kristina Odom
Kristina and her husband, Justin, serve with the church of Christ in Fairfield, IL where her husband is the preacher. Kristina is a stay-at-home mother to their three kids.