Article March 5, 1984 Issue

Conquer false appetite through prayer

RUANNE Y. GENTRY

Everyone has impulses. An individual's longings register his or her state of mental and moral maturity. Appetite, however, is a more intense, and usually physical, yearning. Strong human propensity of every kind needs the rein of discipline; it must be held in check by wisdom and self-control.

Harmful appetite is not normal, since the real man's only attraction is to good. Material belief inverts the natural longing for godliness. If mortals are not alert, material belief entices them deeper and deeper into the whirlpool of sensualism.

This maelstrom is the result of mortal mind's hard sell on sensualism. We are told it is all right—even natural—to be self-indulgent, to abandon ourselves to sensual impulse. Some people even believe that it is harmful not to. But at the same time, there is much mental hand-wringing about how to deal with the awful consequences of undisciplined and mindless behavior—drug addiction, obesity, alcoholism, and so on. Sometimes one addiction is exchanged for another in the attempt to gain freedom.

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