Articles
Lead Us Not Into Marshmallow Temptation
The famous Marshmallow Experiment is very interesting, and the implications are
staggering. It seems that a scientist can see the future by watching 4 year-olds interact with a
marshmallow.
The researcher invites the children, one by one, into a plain room and begins the gentle
torment. “You can have this marshmallow right now,” he says. “But, if you wait while I run an
errand, you can have 2 marshmallows when I get back.” And then he leaves the room. Some grab
the marshmallow the minute he’s out the door. Some last a few minutes before they give in.
Others are determined to wait. They cover their eyes; they put their heads down; they sing to
themselves; they try to play games or even fall asleep. When the researcher returns, he give these
children their two hard-earned marshmallows.
Then, science waits for the children to grow up. By the time these children reach high
school, something remarkable has happened. A survey of the children’s parents and teachers
finds that those who as 4 year-olds had the fortitude to hold out for the second marshmallow
generally grew up to be better adjusted, more popular, adventurous, confident, and dependable
teenagers.
The children who gave into temptation early on were more likely to be lonely, easily
frustrated, and stubborn. They buckled under stress and shied away from challenges.
When some of the students in the two groups took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT),
the children who held out longer scored an average of 210 points higher.
The ability to resist temptation —to delay gratification and to control one’s urges — is
one of life’s great success skills. Life calls for vigilance. Temptation is always at hand. But
remember, we are never alone.
“There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful...
will also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
House to House, Heart to Heart; Jacksonville church of Christ, Jacksonville, AL
