The Parable of the Sugar Addict

    There are many different ways this could be taken. I had one idea in my mind, but I will let the readers decide for themselves which way they want to interpret this. Oh, and no, I am not against sugar, so do not take this the wrong way. It is only a parable. 
 
         Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived with his father and mother. His parents loved him dearly and wanted the best for their son, so they fed him lots of whole grain foods, fresh fruits and veggies, and lots of water at every meal. They told him it was God’s gift of love to them so they could stay healthy and do His work while on this earth.                  
         At first the boy liked everything his parents fed him and did not complain, but as he grew older he began to get discontented and wanted something different to try. As they would drive to the store where they purchased all their good food, he would gaze longingly out the car window at the bakery that flashed, “Doughnuts” in bright neon lights. His mother and father always told him that too much sugar would hurt his body, so it was best to stay away from it
completely. 
         The boy quietly did what his parents told him, but inside he had a longing for something new. Therefore, it was not hard to say yes to the small peppermint candy a friend offered him secretly in the aisle of the health food store one day when his mother and father were not looking. “Just brush your teeth when you get home and no one will ever know you ate it,” the friend reassured him. 
            It was the yummiest thing the boy had ever put into his mouth. He excused the nagging thought that he should not have tried it by telling himself, “It was tiny. One little piece will not hurt me,” and off he went on his merry way. As the week wore on, the boy’s mind kept drifting back to the sweet taste of the candy and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to eat another one. 
            Back at the store for their weekly shopping trip, the boy met up with his friend again, who was shopping with his parents for their own supply of groceries. 
          “Did you get caught?” his friend asked him, glancing around to make sure their parents were out of hearing range.
        The boy shook his head. “They never even suspected.”
        The friend smiled. “Good. I have something else here you should try. This is called chocolate.” He held out a round piece of candy all wrapped in shiny, gold paper. 
        The boy looked around nervously. “I don’t know if I should…”
       “Go on, it will be fine! They will never know! I’ve been doing it for months and my parents haven’t found out.”
        The boy decided to ask one more question to clear his conscience. “Aren't we stealing, though?” 
        “Nah, just one piece isn’t stealing. Besides, their prices are so high they are practically stealing from us. Go ahead and eat it before your parents come around the corner!”
        The boy popped it into his mouth, chewed the delicious soft chocolate ball, and was hooked. After that moment he began to try bigger and better sweets: cakes, cookies, candy bars, and even the doughnuts from the neon-lighted bakery. Soon after, the boy also decided that brushing his teeth was simply a waste of time and tossed his toothbrush into a far corner of his room where it became buried under mounds of candy wrappers. 
        Within months the boy had decided he did not want to eat good food anymore and wanted to live with his friend who could supply him with unlimited amounts of sweet goodies. He packed up his stuff, left his devastated parents sobbing on the doorstep, and moved in with his friend for a life of freedom and fun. Indeed, it was a grand way to live, free from the strict diet rules his parents had kept him under for so many years. Did they not know the joy of eating such wonderful treats? How could they have been so mean to keep him away from the pure pleasure of sugar? 
        After years of sugary coated living, large black holes began to appear on the boy’s teeth. His  entire mouth began to ache as one by one his teeth rotted and fell out. His skin turned pale and thin, while his eyesight grew dim. His muscles, once strong and young, atrophied and grew weak from lack of use and poor choice of food. He began to realize the effects of ‘sugar’ in his life, and the wisdom of his father and mother’s rules became the only clear thing in his fuzzy brain. Feeling extremely sick and weak, the boy returned to his parent’s home and repented of his ways. They gladly forgave him and took him back in and slowly nursed him back to health with lots of whole grain foods, and fresh fruits and veggies, something he had once loved, but had forgotten how truly delicious they really tasted because his mouth had become sugar coated by listening to his friend. 
        Though he regained his health, he was never the same again due to the havoc he had reaped on his body. He had to pay the price of his decisions for the rest of his life, yet he knew that when it came time to raise his own children someday, he was going to stick with the diet of good foods so his children would never have to make the same mistake he had made and suffer as he had. There is always a price to pay when it comes to "sugar."