Inexpensive Chinese Food--A Lesson in Repentance

I like Chinese food. I like inexpensive Chinese food even more. I'm a fairly cheap/frugal guy--I've only had to buy one box of sandwich bags for the last year and a half because I just reuse the same ones from my lunch--so when I have the opportunity to buy Chinese food for under five dollars, I usually jump at the chance. However, while the initial purchase and consumption of the oriental delight is quite thrilling, the effects of picking price over quality usually torment me for several hours after the fact. Such an incident occurred today at about noon.
While driving I had the sudden urge to purchase the lunch special at Saigon Cafe, a combined Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant that offers soup, an egg roll, fried rice, and an entree for only $4.99. I heard a whisper from deep within my stomach remind me of past experiences with places such as Saigon Cafe, but my carnal desire for a pound of unnecessary fat-saturated calories overpowered the soft warnings of past experience. After devouring my Sesame Chicken lunch special, I sat down to watch General Conference. At the start of the first speaker's talk I felt a familiar growl of discomfort escape my stomach and carry with it a dozen memories of lost battles fought on the quality vs. price battlefield. I sat through conference listening to the discourses on gospel principles and realized that my repeated painful experiences with cheap Chinese food was a profound lesson in repentance and that my repeat offenses might be considered some type of dietary transgression.
Think of what we learn with respect to repentance, carnal desires cause us to yield to temptations that present unholy and painful stimuli as pleasurable and harmless. When we reject the still small voice of the Holy Ghost, with His quiet warnings and reminders of past experiences, we fall into temptation and commit sin. In the moment we fail to realize the future consequences of our actions, in fact, often we enjoy the sin we are committing. Nevertheless, just as the pleasing taste of an inexpensive Chinese feast quickly transforms into the bitter pains of indigestion, so too will the exhilarating thrill of transgression fade to the devastating burden of guilt and remorse. Though we may rationalize that this General Tso's Chicken seems fine or if I drink this liquor it doesn't matter and I'm only affecting myself, the consequences always come. Our pain will continue until we humble ourselves and seek out the aid of an intercessor whose power to heal exceeds our own. In the case of a lunch special from Saigon Cafe, a palm-sized handful of Pepto Bismol tablets provide relief. In the case of personal transgression, we humble ourselves, accept our mistakes, and seek out the cleansing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Following the purification that comes only through the Savior, we must forsake our previous sins; in other words, we must never return to them. Unfortunately, it appears that today I returned to my former dietary transgression and thus once again embark on the long road to repentance. Hmmm, where is the Pepto Bismol anyway?