A Box of Packing Peanuts

"Oh, wow!"  My (now eight year old) son, Elliot said. "What are you going to do with those?"

"I'm not sure," I said.  "I suppose just throw them away.  I'm not sure what you can do with packing peanuts if you don't have anything to pack."

I had just opened a box full of greenish colored packing peanuts with one small item wedged somewhere in the middle.  Elliot grabbed a couple out.  Then he popped one in his mouth.

"Elliot,"  I said, a little sharply I'm afraid.  "Don't eat that.  It isn't good for you."

Elliot quickly swallowed the packing peanut.  "But Dad," he said.  "They're so good -- just airy and chewy.  I've eaten them a lot before and they never hurt me."

"That doesn't mean that they are good for you," I said, a little at a loss for words.

I know that people eat food all of the time that has minimal nutritional value, but seldom does it contain quite as little as Styrofoam packing peanuts do.  I have often thought that cheese puffs were probably just fried packing peanuts with artificial cheddar dust sprinkled on them, but I'm not totally sure about that.  Still, I have never had a desire to pop one of those little squeezy items in my mouth either, even if they aren't going to kill me immediately.

I think there is a human tendency to pursue foods that taste good, regardless of their nutritional content.  We really don't much more excuse to eat them other than the simple fact that we enjoy them.

The goal should be to get to the place where we make wiser choices, to think about the food and activities we choose for ourselves with more regard than simply to whether we enjoy them.  God created us with minds that we can use to discern what is good for us.

Eating a box of packing peanuts certainly isn't.