Essay On Delayed Gratification

We live in a world where everyone seeks ‘instant gratification’ and the message that is propagated is: You can have!
This is why credit card debt is such an insidious thing in the modern world. Our culture has become so accustomed to using credit to purchase whatever we think we desire, that the idea of delayed gratification is almost laughable. It certainly seems outdated!
According to Bill Hybels, delayed gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with.
During the 1960s, psychologist Walter Mischel conducted the ‘marshmallow test’ with four-year-olds in the preschool at Stanford University. The object of the

They gobbled down the marshmallow immediately. The rest struggled hard to resist eating it. They covered their eyes, talked to themselves, sang, played games, even tried to go to sleep. The preschoolers who were able to wait were rewarded with two marshmallows when the researcher returned.
Twelve to fourteen years later the same kids were re-evaluated. The differences were astonishing. Those who had been able to control their impulses and delay gratification as four-year-olds were more effective socially and personally as teenagers. They had higher levels of assertiveness, self-confidence, trustworthiness, dependability and a superior ability to control stress. Remarkably, their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores were also 210 points higher than the ‘instant gratification’ group!
Theology of delayed gratification is not one of passivity. You are active and waiting. It calls for sacrifice now for something better later. For instance, high school athletes lift weights at 6:00 a.m. when their friends are still in bed. They give up sleep in order to win the championship next year.
Aspiring pianists practice for hours when they could be watching TV or playing video games. They put in the hours in the hope that someday they may play for