Posts with the label Coke
Showing posts with label Coke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coke. Show all posts

Saturday, January 19, 2019

It's Not the Brownies Fault

Ladies and I started a new journey the first week of this new year. We join together each week to share victories and sometimes defeats reading a 40-day devotional book "Eating with the King".  The objective is to allow God's Holy Spirit to guide and control our eating.  It's not the brownies fault!

The first thing that jumped out at me from the book is "Food is not our foe". Ok. That's right. I can get on-board with that. It's the way I treat food that makes me overweight. I've got this. Me and Jesus are buds and he's gonna help me get skinny! Fast-forward to Day Six entitled "What Kind of Sorry Are We?" Since reading this small yet powerful devotion, I've been like Eeyore.
Yes, this has been me this week!
What toppled my world so dramatically? This simple little sentence from the book. I don't ever remember a time that I would have chosen water over a good ole glass of sweet tea--the sweeter the better, or a classic Coca-Cola. Then the next powerful sentence read...I heard once, a way to recognize if something was an idol in your life was to ask yourself this question. "Can I give it up?" Could I? I don't want to! When I think about food, I always daydream about the drink. I have certain sugary beverages I drink with every meal. Let me paint the picture completely. I WON'T eat the meal without I have my drink of choice! I CANNOT eat a hamburger and fries without a Coke or Diet Coke. Sunday Dinner without tea? I don't think so.

Here's another kicker for me. I rarely ever get thirsty. So this person writing this book is telling me to drink water (which I don't like) and not drink any tea or Coke because I idolize them? The nerve! Turned the page in the book and with one verse of scripture, the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sugary drink idolatry. Oh! Ouch! So painful. So insightful. So annoying. So Sweet Jesus please forgive me.

I've done fairly well since Monday. I'm beginning Day 5 with water as my main drink of choice. I've had one glass of Sweet n Low-laden tea and one glass of sweet tea and zero soft drinks. I passed a Coke truck yesterday and turned my head to avoid the seductive ice cold glass of Coke on the side of the truck with fabulous fizzy bubbles rising from the ice. I tried not to notice the beads of water on the outside of the glass reminding me of a beautiful hot sunny day with a refreshing ice cold Coke! Is there anything better?

Yes. There is something better than Coke! If I find myself dreaming of Coke or tea, conjuring up the flavors in my mind, desiring to go fill a glass with a Coke and a smile, I ask God to inscribe his powerful Word on the tables of my heart so that I may never forget:

Whosoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. John 4:14

Be watered and well 365,
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It's Not the Brownies Fault

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

3 Holes in the #ShareaCoke Campaign

I have a love/hate relationship with Coke. I admit there is nothing more pleasing than the thirst-quenching taste of Coke. That sweet 10 teaspoons of sugary goodness billowing out of a bottle and splashing into your mouth tingling your tongue with a dash of effervescence! Definitely sensual and almost sexy. Then there's that awkward after-Coke regret.

I always hate that I've just drunk poison, albeit a great tasting poison. Coke has the same rotten effect on my body every time I allow that rich dark liquid to penetrate my lips, stain my teeth and erode my esophagus as it spills down my gullet to make war with my stomach acids. I'm not sure which one is stronger; the Coke acid or my stomach acid? I can never cover up the morning after fact that I've drunk a Coke due to the tell tell sign. The delicate skin under my eyes look like I somehow turned into a basset hound during the night.
bassett hound


My love/hate relationship is not the subject of this post. The unsettling experience I had while selecting a Coke from my local Dollar General cooler is! I hadn't shopped for a single 20 oz. Coke since the #ShareaCoke campaign began. I had bought a 12-pack. I can't remember anything distressing about reaching for a 12-pack #ShareaCoke can.  But, as I stood in front of that cooler with the door open trying to decide, I ran into the following 3 holes in this particular advertising campaign:

  1. The very first Coke I saw opening the cooler was the name of my first high school sweetheart. "Awwww! How sweet." It might have been a Hallmark moment if he hadn't passed away several years ago. For a split second, I thought about sharing a Coke with him and then remembered he was no longer here. For Coke's sake, I'm glad I didn't close the cooler and go home depressed. I pushed past the sour emotions until I found the perfect bottle.  #ShareaCoke with Steve...my husband! "Awwww! How sweet!" Finding the perfect named bottle felt good but I still have doubt about the coziness of this campaign.
  2. It felt eerie and downright strange for me to select a Coke to share with a stranger. I saw Kim, Alex and Kyle. I know a Kim or two, one Alex came to mind and so did one Kyle but I've never shared a Coke with any of them so I didn't feel all warm and fuzzy about buying their bottles. Am I the only one that finds it weird to buy a Coke with someone's name on the bottle you don't know?  I finally found two Diet Cokes that I was comfortable buying that said "Friends" and "Family". 
  3. "Friends" and "Family" reminded me more of a Sprint cell phone commercial than it did Coke. Whatever happened to the 1979 campaign  "Have a Coke and a Smile" or the 2009 campaign "Open Happiness"? I wouldn't have wasted so much of my time simply buying a soft drink with either of these campaigns and I'd be thinking happy thoughts while doing it.
I wish I had the money to buy the world a Coke and keep it company. Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow white turtle doves. But I think perfect harmony can best be kept in the Coke world without putting names on Coke bottles. I wonder if Coke stopped to think about how miserable the people feel who can't find their names on a bottle? I haven't asked my daughters Sydnee and Sloane if they've found their names yet. Chances are high they haven't!

Halfheartedly sharing,
Tammy
The Happy Handicap
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3 Holes in the #ShareaCoke Campaign

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

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