MAY I welcome you to this column; let’s call it ‘By The Fire Place’.

THE wise have said, and rightly so, that when you go to the grocery store you ought to get only what you went there for. Period.

Window-shopping may be a good eye cleanser, but anything beyond that might lead into temptation.

Shopping for items, which are not on the list of essentials, will cost you more than the item is worth! Some unexpected consequences may well be avoided. What are we talking about?

In what Mr Sixpack thought was a bid to keep fit and flex the muscles, he would jog down a slope and back up again.

With every try, he would jog a little further down and then back up again.

Without a doubt, the challenge was not so much the going down as it was the coming back up.

The view when descending was deliciously scenic and picturesque leaving the body feeling robust.

Ascending almost always posed the temptatious challenge and subtle desire to briefly pause and take in the view, if only for a while.

Unfortunately, with every pause came the greater challenge of starting the upward journey afresh, with cold, relaxed muscles. Curious though how Mr Sixpack always convinced himself that he would reboot at will! Even more curious was the fact that he would go much further down the next time around.

Many of life’s moments are delicious and some even temptatious. Stay long enough in that deliciously temptatious moment and you’ll need a crane to bring you back up!

The muscles of resistance can only flex and straighten for so long. Then the temptatious overrides the delicious and suddenly it seems easier and temporarily more realistic to picnic by the slope than exercise back up.

The hard reality however, is that although no one wants to picnic by the slope forever, many are they forcibly still at the picnic table. And this, out of no choice of theirs.

Many a life’s delicious moments would forever remain delicious were they left to be just that – delicious moments.

We would do well to learn one of the golden rules of effective exercise; every muscle has its limits of resistance.

The same goes for temptation. Who ever went into the lion’s mouth solely to count its teeth and came out alive? As for the heart? Need I repeat the old age adage that the heart is not so smart?

Therefore, let each one drink water from his own cistern.

Proverbs 5:15-20 puts it in no uncertain terms when the wise man says, “Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?

Let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.

Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts fill you always with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

Why should you be intoxicated my son, with the forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulterous?”

Now back to that shopping list! Where were we? Oh yes, when you go to the grocery store you ought to get only what you went there for. Period.

Window-shopping may be a good eye cleanser, but anything beyond that might lead into temptation.

Shopping for items, which are not on the list of essentials will cost you more than the item is worth!

Some unexpected consequences may well be avoided.

God has made all His creation and creatures beautiful and it is only right to give credit where it is due.

It’s also seeming to admire where admiration is called for; to a great degree, admiration waters the soil which nurtures our growth.

When God was done creating, He looked and behold, He saw that it was good.

He crafted us each wonderfully and beautifully.

And we must confess that we were made for beauty and therefore we feel drawn towards the beautiful.

What may be beautiful to one, may not rate as such to another. Such is the mystery of life and love.

As we venture into the grocery store, as daily we are called to, let us admire and then continue along our way.

As much as drawing from an Automated Teller Machines (ATM) may be convenient, that hole in the wall will never give you a loan!

You must need enter the Bank and woe unto you if you run out of change and goodwill with the Bankers.

Get your heart back home while you still can.

Go ahead and achieve your fullest potential because YOU ARE SOMEONE!

(The author is the Chief Programmes Officer, Zambia National Commission for UNESCO Ministry of Education)